Muted Echoes
by Kyeian
Summary: Ryan and Kevin aren't sure what to expect when they're called back to Vegas to help Brian. Josh, most unfortunately, is taken off guard as well. The dragon, however, is not too impressed by the lot of them cavorting around underfoot. All's well that...ends well? Non-Canon (OCs). Flawless book 2
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter One  
** ***Ryan**

Kevin was getting angry at me.

I grinned, continuing to spin the chain around. He'd lost four weapons so far, and was evidently deciding on a fifth.

He grabbed an actual sword from the rack, and spun, throwing the sheath at me. I snapped the chain at it before I realized what he'd done, and had to backtrack damn quick. He came at me again as the wood clattered across the floor, and I had to _work_ to stop him. We were actually sparring for a crowd of teenagers. They were sitting around the edges of the floor watching intently.

It meant that I couldn't let loose with the kusari, and it also meant that if I actually hurt Kevin, we'd have one of those fights that made him stop talking to me for a month.

Kevin heaved out an annoyed breath, and I wondered what he'd decided to do. He and his brother had been my friends for years, since the days of our apprenticeships. We'd gone to war together, too, and no one seemed to realize how skilled he actually _was_.

The master here thought it'd be great to show the students real weapons, and I had a feeling he was teaching us something about self-control since the kids were way too close. Who that lesson was for probably depended on who got hurt.

When Kevin moved, I moved. He came at me with the sword, and I realized that I had to get that from him, too.

A man came from the front of the building to speak to the master a moment, pointing toward Kevin.

I dropped the chain, catching it quickly and wrapping it up, bowing to Kevin easily.

Kevin, who'd assumed I was making another move, nearly attacked me. It was amusing, because as I bowed I saw the 'oh shit' in his eyes. He managed it, though. He got the sword in his waistband and bowed in response to me as the kids realized their show was being stopped and looked around in confusion.

"Message for you," the second man muttered, gesturing for Kevin to follow him.

Kevin looked nervously to me, and I moved to join the teacher. We'd been nearly done with our lesson, so I thanked the man for thanking me, then the class for thanking me, thanked them for thanking Kevin, and so on. By the time I'd reached the locker-room, he came to the door.

"Thank you for sparring me," I noted.

"What?" Kevin asked blankly, stopping to look at me, then shook his head, moving forward and passing me a piece of printed paper.

It was an address...in Las Vegas.

I blinked at it.

"We have been summoned," Kevin said quietly, looking around. "Brian."

I frowned, wondering what had happened. I was actually in contact with L, still, and she'd kept me up to date with Josh, but Brian hadn't been a personal friend of hers.

"I need your help," Kevin noted, studying my face. "I don't know what I can do on my own."

"What?" I asked, giving him the same blank look he'd given me before. "I don't know the train schedule. Do we want to chance cars?"

He stared at me, and I huffed at him, moving to the showers.

It didn't take us long to scrub and change, and he was fidgeting with the message as we headed into the lobby.

"Thank you for coming," the pretty little receptionist muttered, smiling up at me in particular. She passed me an envelope, then one to Kevin and waved as we headed from the building.

Cash, awesome.

"We need to get to the apartment and get stuff," Kevin noted quietly, looking around. "What's the weather like in Vegas in winter?"

"L said it's been windy as hell and cold. Evidently it got down to sixty the other day."

Kevin guffawed at that.

"Is that really all it says?" I asked, looking to the letter he was still fiddling with.

Kevin nodded, smacking it against his hand.

We regularly sparred at the Coral Palace, and had taken on classes. We'd arranged with them to be our message phone, and kept a small apartment across the street above an old warehouse.

"I'm worried," Kevin noted quietly as we climbed the old rickety stairs. "When I told Brian I'd come for him, I didn't think he'd ever really call."

"But we offered him the out because we know the community he lives in," I reminded my friend.

"I'm not planning on going back on it," Kevin retorted, turning into his room. "It's times like these where I _long_ for the internet."

"We have to report that we're going there," I mused as I moved into the tiny bedroom that was mine. It had once been an office, so it had upper-shelves that worked for my storage. I dug my duffel bag out and turned to start throwing clothes on the bed.

"Can you...call L?" he asked quietly. "Because if she can get her incubus on this..."

"You get to call and tell _them_ where we're going, then," I pointed out.

"I know," he sighed. "But I'm worried."

I realize that he'd just asked me to get the incubus to do us a favor and thought a long moment about what I wanted to do.

The note had been very simple. _You promised to come get me. I'm ready to go,_ _I'd rather not start a new addiction._

The receptionist who took our messages had interrupted our lesson, which probably meant that Brian had sounded scared.

I finished throwing things into my bag, then turned and grabbed my sword and staff. I considered my blasting rod a long moment, then decided against it. If I needed the rod, I'd probably be much better off with something else.

I smirked slightly, turning to grab a heavy rope; I usually practiced with it instead of the kusari.

I moved into the main room, moving over to our ice box and taking a moment to divest it of its contents. We'd left food in it on accident before when we'd been called away, and we'd been shocked we didn't have a police search because the smell of spoiled meat.

Kevin appeared a few minutes later, his road atlas in hand and a pencil between his teeth. He slowed to look up at me as I gathered the trash, then turned and headed outside. I made a last sweep of the apartment, then ducked out after him. He'd stopped on the landing outside the door, so as he took the moment to lock up, I headed out to the trash and payphone. There was another payphone a few feet away, they still worked for who knew what reason, so I pulled out a handful of change and dialed L.

* * *

 ***L**

I smiled at my cellphone as the normal number for Ryan came up, answering as I flopped back on the bed. "Ooh baby, you spent a nickel on me."

"It's like sixty cents now," he retorted. "And we're on our way there."

"Huh?" I asked, realizing that he wasn't calling to catch up. "What's going on?"

"We told Brian we'd come get him if he wanted out. He wants out. Do you know where he is?"

"I don't go to Secrets," I muttered with a frown. "I haven't seen him in a while."

"Can you get your incubus to help?" His tone was serious. "I'm willing to repay within reason...as long as it's not him who's grabbed the guy."

"No, Brian is Josh's go-to," I sighed. "I'll call him and see if he can start. When will you get here?"

"I'm not sure," he sighed. "Kev has the atlas."

My first thought was how pointless that was, but then I realized that they had issues with technology. It was a minor miracle that his calls connected ninety percent of the time.

"So...call me when you figure it out," I decided. "And I'll do the go-between thing. You guys can crash here at my place while you're in town."

"I think we shouldn't," he countered as the phone clicked slightly. "Time's almost up. We'll get a room, alright? No one needs to connect us with you, he specifically noted that he doesn't want to start a new addiction, so I'm thinking the whites are doing something to him."

I groaned an agreement as the call clicked over. He'd evidently only paid for a minute. Well, the next thing to do was call Josh.

* * *

 ***Josh**

I stretched as I grabbed my phone. I'd been binge watching a show all day, and wasn't really inclined to talk to anyone, but...L.

"Hello?" I asked, pushing myself forward a bit as I looked over my mess of dishes. "What's up?"

"Hey, sweetie," L returned happily. "I got a request."

"I try to go slow, but can never manage it," I teased.

L laughed. "I'm actually serious. I just got a call from Ryan."

"From your wizard?" I demanded as I shoved off the couch and moved to my mini-fridge. "Explain to me why I care."

"Have you talked to Brian lately?" she asked, ignoring the baiting.

"At the club the other night," I noted curiously. "You wanna bed him, I can arrange it."

"Yeah, I'm still not having sex with someone else so you can have sex with me again," she retorted.

I snickered, then frowned. "Brian said he didn't feel good. Why? I imagine he's at home, sick."

"Well, Ryan and Kevin are driving here to get him; he told me he'd repay you within reason for finding him."

I blinked as I thought about that. "But...I just said he's probably home sick."

"Can you check for me?" she asked quietly.

"But..." I hesitated again.

"Josh," she protested, "Ryan and Kevin are coming here to pick him up; I'm not sure of any details beyond that. Find him. After you do that you can figure out if you're going to help me or not."

"It's not you, it's the damn wizard," I retorted instantly.

She didn't say anything.

I sighed tiredly, rubbing at my face as I dug out a can of soda. "Fine. I'll call him and see what he says."

"Thank you," she said quietly. "Wanna do dinner tonight?"

"Let me find out what's up with Brian first," I suggested. "Once I know that I'll see if I'm in a mood or not."

She made another noise, ending the call.

I sighed and dialed the bartender.

"Hello?" Brian sounded strained.

"Hey, where ya at?" I returned, relaxing slightly.

"Busy," he replied, huffing slightly. "What do you want?"

I blinked, pulling the phone away to make sure the screen said the right number and time. "Where are you?" I asked seriously.

" _Busy_ ," he stated through gritted teeth. "D...Don't call me again."

"Oh fuck off," I retorted, ending the call. So much for being worried about the asshole. I dialed L.

"Hey?"

"He told me not to call him again," I noted dryly. "I somehow think he's fine."

"That doesn't sound like him," she protested. "Isn't he usually willing to run around for you because you pay him?"

I hesitated.

"Where is he?"

"He would only say he was busy," I admitted, thinking about it.

"Josh," she muttered nervously, obviously hesitant to say more.

"Yeah," I agreed, realizing how out of character that actually was. He really did run around for me, and come to think of it, he'd never been outright rude when I'd called him. I sat back down and digging my laptop out from under my snack trash. "I think I paid for one of those tracking sites a while back. Let me look if I can find his phone. Why is your wizard coming? That seems weird to me...that you're even involved at all."

"Ryan specifically asked me to get you to help," she pointed out. "Because you're the reason they met him."

I snorted, remembering Kevin saying something about Ryan protecting Brian. It didn't take me long to find that I'd paid for a month of tracking service a year before, which meant the account wasn't active.

And, of course, Brian's phone was at his apartment. I went through the hassle of re-upping my account for another month, and the thing zeroed in on his house.

I snorted.

"What?" L asked curiously.

"He's at his apartment," I supplied, reading through the provided information. "He's probably getting laid," I decided. "I'll hit the club tonight and see what he's up to."

"Ryan said that I shouldn't get involved," she noted quietly. "I offered to let him sleep here and he said he didn't want me getting any backlash."

I scratched at my hair, looking my suite over. "Well, if you want to send the wizard to the club, we can both check on him. What time are they getting here?"

"I don't know yet," she groaned. "Ryan said Kevin had the atlas."

"Where do they live?" I asked blankly.

"That falls under the 'information you don't need' label," she informed me happily. "Something about bloody whites and pink blood, something something manipulative dick."

"Most of those are your words," I pointed out, studying my fingernails. I needed a manicure. "Get your dress on and come play?"

"Let me see what Ryan says when he calls back," she decided.

I felt a jealous thrum and huffed. "Fine."

"Don't pout," she retorted. "Did you forget the part where he said backlash and keeping me out of it?"

"I don't think there's anything _wrong_ ," I retorted.

"Then why did Brian call them?" she snapped back.

"Maybe they're special friends," I shot back. "Ryan could have been all over you a few times when he was high, and he didn't do a damn thing. Maybe there's a reason for that."

"You're stupid," she stated, hanging up.

I ended the call and tossed my phone down, glaring at the beacon on my computer screen.

Well, I needed to shower and find Lucy for my nails. I didn't even remotely feel like shaving, so if it didn't look scruffy I wasn't going to bother.

Then I was going to find that little shit of a bartender and see if maybe it wasn't time to bring him under my influence.

Don't call me again, indeed.

* * *

 ***Ryan**

I yawned as we pulled into some random mostly empty parking lot on a random side road in a random area of a random part of Vegas, pulling the car to a stop and rubbing at my face.

The drive had taken us seven hours, and I felt a little numb. Kevin stumbled out of the car, and we both tottered around to the trunk.

"What is this place?" he asked, looking around at the half-full parking garage behind us. There was no business that could account for it, and the area had an abandoned feel to it.

"Evidently that club," I muttered, looking around and spotting the building. It looked entirely industrial on the outside, like some factory, but it had to be Secrets.

We both took a moment to wipe up a bit, though the wind _was_ cold. It was gusting at random, and I wished it'd stop because the temperature wasn't that bad. We both finished with the wipes, and I dug out my pack to find a shirt that wasn't drive-wrinkled. Kevin took a moment to change his jeans, and I snickered at him since he managed to step wrong and nearly fall.

"You bringing that?" he asked, focusing on the rope.

"I can't think of a way to wear it," I countered, tilting my head at it. "It's too long for the belt idea."

"What are you bringing?"

"My thinking stick," I retorted, digging my staff out.

The car's engine was clicking, and I frowned slightly. I really didn't want it to die, it was hard to find the old cars anymore. I'd have to find one that'd been built in the eighties next, and who knew how well that'd hold up.

We finished getting ready and started locking the car down as a white Ferrari turned into the parking garage.

"Mm," Kevin muttered as he watched it. "That was one fine piece of work."

"I didn't see her," I yawned, digging out the key Brian had given me the first time we'd been on the strip.

"I meant the car," Kevin retorted.

I snickered, double checking that I had Josh's personal card. The letter he'd given me had said that I'd need it and the key to enter the club.

We worked our way across the large lot as the wind gusted a few more times, and I slowed as I felt something cold coming at us.

Kevin turned to look at me with interest, and I focused on the parking garage.

Josh was coming out of the pedestrian entrance. He stopped to look at us, then rolled his eyes.

"That was your car?" Kevin complained. "That wasn't supposed to be your car; I liked that car."

Josh laughed at that, his eyes lighting up as he looked between us. "I don't know what L told you, but Brian was at his house today after you called."

"She said," I agreed, falling in with him as he headed for the building. "Thanks for meeting with us anyway."

He didn't reply, stopping at the door. There were stairs down to it, and we watched a he took out a key and unlocked the thing.

It was then that I noticed the engraved word at the top corner.

"Keep your mouths shut," Josh noted quietly over his shoulder to us, then moved into a tiny curtained off area. The next section had a guard, who was busy greeting Josh as he pulled the club's door opened and looked at the pair of us with severely limited interest.

He did notice my staff, but averted his eyes wordlessly.

The music was loud, and I felt a chill come from the damn vampire. I _focused_ on him as he smirked at me, leading us to a set of stairs to the side. He was smirking as he stepped up...and the music _changed_.

I felt the cold roll off of him, narrowing my eyes. My lungs almost seemed to be burning, and I realized that I might have a serious problem. It'd been months since we'd met him, months since I'd been drugged by incubus blood.

The crowd _screamed_. The music sounded more demanding than whatever'd been playing before, and Josh slowed at the top of the steps to look the area over.

"What?" Kevin asked shoving me up after him.

I shook my head, deciding not to make an issue of it. The damn vampire strutted forward toward the long bar, stopping briefly to kiss a female. She melted against him as other females darted forward, and I realized that I could still feel the coldness in the air as I looked around.

"Damn it," Kevin muttered, moving up to thump Josh in the back. Josh let the woman go, looking us over with silvered eyes before his attention moved to the bar.

Brian was standing at it, staring at him with an almost sick expression. He was shirtless with a little bowtie, and there were dark rings under his eyes. I was almost certain I could see bruises on his arms.

Josh moved across to the bar, leaning into it as he studied the bartender.

Brian looked away, shivering hard before noticing Kevin and I. I saw hope and fear burn through his eyes, and he looked away from us, too.

"We're taking a room," Josh stated. "Come."

"No," Brian said, not looking at him as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I said _come_ ," Josh snapped back, turning to stride away.

Brian looked after him with an almost sick expression again, then looked back between Kevin and I. He turned to type at the console, and even as he started for the employee entrance, another bartender was coming out. That male _beamed_ at Kevin and I, but we turned to follow Josh.

It took until we were at the weird lake in the middle of the club for me to actually _notice_ the club. I'd seen a few ladies dancing provocatively in the throng, but it was nearly midnight, so I'd assumed they were drunk...but the pavilion in that lake was full of people. It was a giant orgy.

I stared in disbelief, but Josh didn't look around. Instead, he led us down a hall into an area with curtained off sections. He turned to the right at the first hallway we reached and we moved down it until we reached walls that were wooden instead of curtain.

"What is this?" I asked the man skeptically, gesturing back. "And I'm pretty sure that pavilion thing would break regulations."

"We don't get inspected," Josh retorted in amusement as he inserted his key into the door and swung it open. "And this is a private room."

I hesitated, but the coldness had faded from him. Kevin pushed around me into the room and whistled.

There was a large and thin tv hanging from every wall. The entertainment stand had a ton of tech on it that I couldn't even place. There was a large square table in the middle of the room, and the floor wasn't carpet, it was a giant pillow.

Josh slid his shoes off, walking over and dropping down against what looked like a sofa back that stuck out of the floor as he shoved the table toward the entertainment systems with his feet.

"This is...pointless," I noted, looking around.

"Shoes off," he instructed. "And tell me what's going on."

I sighed and slid my shoes off, moving onto the pillow-y floor.

"Sit?" he asked, looking between us. "Something about guest rights?"

The sound of a door opening made us both jump, and Brian appeared from the back wall. The door was so well fitted that it was indiscernible from the rest, and he was carrying a tray with a pitcher of dark liquid, two bottles of alcohol, and cups.

"Hey," I greeted him.

He set the stuff down carefully, then tried to jump away hard. Josh lunged up and grabbed him, pulling back at his hair. Brian made a scared noise, flinching away from Josh's mouth.

"If you _ever_ talk to me like that again," Josh hissed in his ear.

"Do it," Brian gasped, still tensed. " _Please_...now."

I exchanged a look with Kevin, noticing that Brian was trying to dig his nails into Josh's arm. Josh was looking down at him with shock on his face.

" _Please!_ " Brian gasped, pressing himself back into Josh. "Do it..."

"What the fuck?" Josh demanded, letting him loose.

"I can't talk to you," Brian gasped in obvious panic as he tore away. "He'll make it worse if I talk to you..."

Josh went _still_ , unnaturally still.

Brian turned away toward the table, then looked up to us with tear-glazed eyes.

"What happened?" Kevin asked quietly, moving forward to him.

Brian collapsed into Kevin without saying a word, wrapping his arms around him and starting to shiver.

I sighed, pulling off my button-up. I moved around Kevin to drape it over the young man...and saw the bruises.

His skin was covered in makeup, but the lighting in the little personal room was harsh.

"I can't," Brian said as I tucked the shirt around him. "He's...going to..."

"Who is?" Kevin asked seriously. "Brian, what happened?"

"I _can't_ ," he gasped, clinging even harder.

"Someone's torturing him," Josh said quietly, watching the young man.

"Come on, Bry," Kevin muttered, shifting and pulling him. "Come sit down."

Brian cooperated as Kevin sank down to lean against that weird couch-back, and he huddled into Kevin's body, obviously trying to keep contact wherever he could.

I sighed, moving to pour us drinks. It was cool in the room, wearing only a wife-beater, but I had a feeling Brian needed that warmth far more than I did.

"Who is it?" Josh asked quietly, then looked around to me. "I don't dare talk to him anymore, whoever it is will ask him."

"And I wager he can't lie," I muttered, passing him a glass.

"I always wanted to demand what you put into a drink you mixed me," Josh noted as he sipped. "But this isn't the time—and there's a white somewhere who has gotten to him," he looked Brian over. "And...I can't do the soul-gaze on my own."

I made a face at that as Kevin looked up to me seriously. He took the glass I'd poured and offered it to Brian, who sipped it before even thinking about it. He had tears on his cheeks and he turned to look at me again.

"Do it," I told Kevin quietly. "He's your friend, and you know how people react when I do it."

"No, you do it," Kevin retorted. "Because as scary as your shit is, you give them the choice."

"Yours isn't _that_ bad," I complained. "That one said mine was black like midnight," I indicated the vampire with my thumb.

" _Some_ one do it," Josh snapped.

I felt a ripple of coldness through the air, and Brian froze entirely.

I huffed, sitting down near my friend and leaning over. Josh was right, we had to see what we could of Brian's problem, and he obviously couldn't talk about it. I touched his shoulder, and when he turned to meet my eyes, he looked utterly confused.

The soul-gaze started immediately, and I looked around a random sort of room a long moment before seeing Brian off to one side. He had been wearing casual clothes at some point, but the shirt was ripped and torn so only the sleeves were still on him. He had his feet tucked under him, and was half gasping as he tried to find a way to sit comfortably. There were long red marks along his skin, and spots across his throat and collar bone that looked like hickies, and small wounds down his chest.

There was a white collar around his neck chaining him to a post. His eyes were frantic as he looked around, and I realized that his wrists were tied with more white cord.

I moved up to him, noticing him focus on me, trying to reach for me before the ropes caught his arms. He tried to say something, straining against the bonds, and thrashed backwards away from me.

Brian was full-on crying when I could see him again, and he threw himself to me as he sobbed.

"What was it?" Josh asked in a tight voice.

"White collar," I supplied. "White ropes binding his arms. You been in a bad mood lately, vampire?"

" _I_ didn't do it," Josh snapped irritably, lowering the drink to glare at me.

"What do we do?" Kevin demanded. "We can't just break the bonds like that."

"We're going to have to do it the long way," I returned, holding the young man tighter to me. "We're going to have to get him out to start with."

"Hey," Josh protested. "He's got a job here..."

"And he's being _tortured_ by your family," I snapped back. "Maybe even _you_."

"I gave you guest rights, asshole," Josh snapped.

I blinked, realizing the truth in that. "Sorry," I sighed.

Brian shifted and moved up me, leaning into my ear. I could feel him shaking as he hesitated, then leaned forward to whisper one word.

"Ethan."

I narrowed my eyes as he collapsed against me again, he was seriously trying to touch me with every inch of his body. His pulse was erratic, and the shivering hadn't stopped at all.

Josh looked between Kevin and I...as the cup he was holding broke.

"That's _exciting_ ," I hissed to Kevin, feeling my own pulse heighten at the thought.

"Do you want my blood?" Josh asked dryly as he considered his hand. "Make it more fun for all of us? You ever figure out what you were planning to do to me?"

I turned my head to consider the vampire a long moment, then smiled at him. "Why would I tell you?"

He narrowed his eyes at me.

I laughed.

"He said he wanted to feel his pulse again," Kevin noted dryly. "And to breathe the cold air. I told him it was disgusting and he told me that he was going to spike my drink with you."

Josh _guffawed_ at us, dropping back in his seat again. He considered Brian a long moment, then wiped is hand off on his jeans. It only took him a moment to pull Brian to him, and he looked between us. "This is going to get uncomfortable," he noted.

"No!" Brian gasped, trying to fight away from him in a panic. "No! He'll make it worse, he'll make it worse!"

"And it won't hurt him?" I demanded, frowning as I yanked Brian away again. It felt ridiculous to do, but I wanted to be sure.

Josh shook his head, pulling the smaller male from me. Brian was panicking as he tried to flail away harder, but Josh licked his thumb and pressed it to the guy's throat. Brian started crying hard as he turned into the vampire.

It was sickening to see him laid bare like that. Actually, the fact that he was being influenced the way he was meant that I hadn't seen any of what made him who he was. I couldn't even make out the room he'd been in; I was used to seeing details like memories hanging around a room. They'd look like family photos, and it was one way to figure out what sort of person you were dealing with.

Josh licked his thumb again, or maybe it was his fingers. He wasn't looking at us, and Brian calmed after a minute, though he was still shaking. He pulled away to look up at Josh.

"Can you talk?" Josh asked.

Brian swallowed, nodding and sliding away from him. He huddled down with his back against the table, looking down at my shirt in confusion.

"What's been going on?" Kevin asked quietly.

"Ethan showed up," he explained, gesturing vaguely toward the bar. "He said he had a job for me, so I went to meet him at my car when the shift ended. He...he came up behind me and licked me," he made a face as he rubbed at his throat.

"Are you okay?" I asked quietly, studying him over.

"He...was making me beg," Brian muttered without looking at us. "He wouldn't actually touch me beyond biting or licking...and when I got too insistent he'd grab me and throw me," he rubbed at his arms. "He was biting me when you called...I'm sorry."

"No," Josh reassured him. "I'm sorry. I should have paid more attention."

I looked between them a moment.

Brian sighed, laying over so his head was near me as he rubbed at his face. "I barely realized I should call you," he noted as he studied Kevin. He frowned, looking around to me and blinking. "Have you...killed?"

I frowned at him, nodding. Of all the reactions people had to a soul-gaze with me, that was normally the first question they could eventually manage. I'd gathered that I was holding my sword with a puddle of blood around my feet, and Josh had said it was dark. I didn't want to know more; the details I'd heard repeated upset me.

"Don't talk about what you saw," Josh muttered to Brian, shifting back to take another drink as he obviously thought. "And those binds were weak."

"He told me before work today that I couldn't talk to you or he'd..." he looked away. "He's been coming every day for a week."

Josh rubbed at his face, nodding. "I'm going to have to deal with this."

"Thank you," Brian muttered, looking away.

"You are mine," Josh stated, looking from Brian to me, then around to Kevin.

Brian didn't say anything.

"What can we do?" Kevin asked thoughtfully. "Without provoking your house, I mean. We need to deal with this..."

"Well, for one, I'm taking Joey," Josh stated.

We both focused on him.

"I won't hurt him," Josh retorted. "At the most I'll lick him, but probably not even that. I'll do like you just saw," he indicated Brian. "If I do it a few times in a row, it'll get results."

I rubbed at the back of my hand, looking back to Brian.

"But what can _we_ do?" Kevin persisted. "You heard Ry, he wants to tear the asshole up again."

"Well," Josh sighed. "I think the first thing at all is going to be me getting Joey. You two should take Brian somewhere."

"My shift," Brian protested, looking around to him.

"I'll take your shift," Josh gave him a look, pulling his phone out and moving across the room from us. He was smiling as he started talking, and Brian sighed as he pulled the shirt off and passed it back nervously to me.

"You gonna be alright?" I asked quietly.

Brian nodded, rubbing the makeup so it covered his bruises again. "A shower...but it depends on what he says," he looked to Josh with a swallow.

It only took a minute for the door to the room to open again, and a smiling woman swaggered in with a clipboard. She moved to Brian, indicating something, and he filled out the form quickly. She turned to Josh, who wrote something in large letters before giving her a look. She blinked at it, then frowned. She was back to being sweet at him before she turned and left the room.

"I swear they think they own you," Josh noted dryly, moving to us and wrapping his arm around the younger male's waist. "Stay with me, we'll separate outside."

Brian nodded, starting to shiver, he was breathing hard as we left the room.

It wasn't until we were almost across the main floor that I realized Ethan was watching us. I turned when I spotted him, reaching down and caressing my staff as I met his eyes. Everything in me wanted to throw fire at him and see what happened next, but Kevin moved and grabbed my arm. He pulled and shoved me past Josh toward the exit, and I turned back to see Brian was clinging to Josh as the vampire did something at his throat.

I was going to _kill_ him.

Josh started laughing, catching Brian into his arms and moving to join Kevin and I. He hadn't acknowledged his cousin at all, and I spotted the other vampire storming toward the bar.

We moved from the loud building into the cold night, and I crossed my arms over my chest as I stopped at the top of the stairs to look at the vampire.

"I didn't _do_ anything," Josh retorted, supporting Brian up the stairs with one hand. "I asked him if he wanted to make Ethan jealous and we didn't touch beyond me holding him up. Calm down."

"I'm currently thinking all vampires are bastards," I retorted. "And considering what you've threatened to do to _me_..."

"I don't sleep with guys," Josh noted, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. "I _can_ influence them, and I do influence them, but I've never wanted to have sex with them, so stop giving me that look."

"You're a bastard," Brian informed him seriously, pulling away and moving over to join Kevin and I. "You've been threatening me for the last two damn years."

"If I had honestly meant any of it," Josh pointed out, meeting his eyes, "I'd have _done_ it. There's an Asian mall thing in Chinatown, on Spring Mountain."

I gave him a _blank_ look, processing that he was done arguing. I mostly believed him, and leaving fast was probably the best thing we could do at this point. I turned to look toward my car. "It'll take us a bit to..."

"I know it," Brian reassured us. "What about it?"

"Meet me there," Josh shrugged. "I'll find you a hotel suite at a nearby..."

"Suite?" Kevin asked dryly.

"Yes," Josh agreed. "Because I'm paying for it."

We all gave him blank looks.

"Go," Josh added. "I'm bringing Joey to you, and he'll be incredibly upset."

Brian shuddered, looking away, then focusing on our car. He blinked at it, then looked around to me.

"Technology hates us," I supplied. "We go old school. Come on."

Josh turned and headed away, stretching.

"You ride shot-gun," Kevin muttered. "It'll help the engine for less magic to be working against it."

Brian shook his head slightly, turning to move around the car.

* * *

 **A/N:** So I have the third story in this series finished and none of them are very long. The base idea for this story has been floating in my mind for something like 5 years now, and I finally decided to get it out. I feel I should point out that all the characters are in their early twenties, and fairly untried. I'd appreciate a review if you're enjoying the story. ~Kye


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two  
*Josh**

I moved into Ethan's room, hearing a ringtone from near the television. I grinned at it as I moved across to the room's closet, listening to the sound of the young man sleeping. Considering that the closet was the size of a small bedroom, Ethan's favoritism showed clearly.

The woman, Brian's manager, had us fill out the form for time off, and while Brian could easily get fired for leaving mid-shift, my signature secured his job. I'd added a note that I knew Ethan would see, about how I needed a bartender for my bondage party.

The ringtone was quiet, but I noted the young man was starting to wake up. I moved up to the side of his little twin bed, and reached a hand down to touch his bare chest.

He gasped and jumped hard, turning to look up at me as his consternation turned to fear. He tried to throw himself away, but there wasn't nearly enough room in the little closet for that.

"Wait!" he gasped at me, looking around fearfully. "Where's..."

"Ethan," I muttered, bending down so I had an arm on either side of his legs, "he didn't hold up our bargain."

Joey's eyes went nearly white as he _focused_ on me.

I smiled, leaning in to his ear. "You see, I told him to leave us all be, and he decided my friend was his friend," I ran my hand down the guy's chest as I considered his stomach. "And that means..."

"No!" Joey gasped, trying to shove away from me. "No!"

I leaned in and started kissing at his throat. It didn't take him long to lose his will to resist, and I lifted him from the bed easily, carrying him into the main room.

"I'm going to tell you that if you play your cards right," I noted, "that I'll just use your disappearance to scare my cousin. I won't touch you beyond what I just did...but if you don't do exactly what I tell you to do," I smirked at him. "Well, Ethan is calling you for a reason."

He looked around to his phone, gasping hard as he stared at it.

It started ringing again.

"Answer it," I instructed, setting him down beside the tray it was on. "You tell him you're busy and not to call you again."

"But..." he started.

I leaned over and licked his throat briefly.

He was about to start crying.

"It's your call," I said in a low voice, studying him.

Joey made an unhappy noise, lifting the phone up as it started ringing again. "I'm...I'm..." I licked him, and he groaned as he jerked away. "I'm busy," he hissed. "Don't call me again."

I could _hear_ Ethan start shouting.

I ended the call as Joey looked away from me.

"See?" I asked. "Not so hard. Don't worry, he won't be angry with you. He did this to my friend, see," I indicated the door. "Go stand by the door, huh?"

He moved away.

I moved back into the closet and dug out Joey's coat and a couple shirts. I found a messenger bag nearby and shoved the clothing into it, carefully setting his pretty laptop in the center of the bed. It didn't take me long to return to the young man, who was standing at the door with his hands covering his eyes.

"Calm down," I instructed, pushing him into the hall.

He was still crying as he followed me, and slid into my car. I knew we had surveillance around the house, so I leaned down and kissed at his mouth. I didn't let him actually kiss me when my darker nature broke his will again. I closed him into the car and moved around it, flipping off the nearest camera before getting in and shifting so my car threw gravel up at the house.

The rest of my family would be unimpressed by the display, but Ethan was going to be _furious_.

And really, it was entirely his fault.

* * *

 ***Ryan**

I studied the long two story building thoughtfully as we waited. The lot was fairly empty, and there weren't many cars on the road itself. Kevin and I had moved to sit on the trunk, and Brian had followed, leaning into me tiredly. I'd given him a sweater I'd brought extra, and he was swimming in it. He looked comfortable, though, and I wondered why he was leaning into me when it was Kevin who'd come for him.

Brian sighed and moved around so he could lay into my lap, wrapping his arms around my waist, and I sighed at him.

"Shut-up," he retorted. "I've spent the last week in hell. It's the first time I've been away from him that I haven't expected him to reappear, and the first time being _with_ someone where I wasn't..." he trailed off.

I snorted, but didn't make him move. I wasn't fully comfortable with him glomming onto me like that, but I could understand his point.

"I'm so jealous," Kevin noted, smirking briefly at me.

"Bite me," I retorted.

"I would, but then you might get all hot and bothered," Kevin turned away from us.

Brian snickered. "Or I will."

"Ah, off," I kneed at him until he actually pulled away. He climbed onto the trunk next to me as he snickered, and I slid off.

"Okay," he yawned, shifting over to use my shoulder as a pillow.

Kevin grinned more at me, then looked around. "So what do we do? And why are we cooperating with the incubus?"

"I want to..." I shuddered slightly at the idea of the violence I could do to Ethan. I'd honestly thought I'd managed to avoid any sort of long term complications from my incident with the damn vampires over the summer. I had always been considered hyper violent by the ones who knew me, but the excitement I felt at the notion, and then on _seeing_ him...

Brian pulled back to look at me curiously.

"You came in on the last act," Kevin noted. "Before you or the limo got there, Ry was doing something along the lines of extermination. It was a vampire event, but then the protestors rallied."

Brian blinked slowly at him, then snorted.

"You alright?" Kevin added, considering me.

"I don't really know," I admitted, frowning. "I mean, I want to get Brian out of here, but Ethan needs retribution."

Brian blinked at me.

"Otherwise we'd have just run," Kevin pointed out. "We'd have gotten you and headed home."

"I'm also not sure how free of addiction he is," I added. "If there was any to begin with...how much influence. It's something to consider."

Kevin nodded, frowning.

"What will I do?" Brian asked quietly, looking across the lot. "I mean, you guys get me away from them, sure, but...I mean, I'm here because I have nowhere."

"We'll figure that out when we have to," Kevin waved it away. "When we get back to our place we can decide what you want to do...unless you don't want to go back with us."

"Where do you live?" he asked thoughtfully.

"We'll tell you that after we get away from the vampires," I noted. "I know Josh can find us pretty easy but we don't want to just tell him."

"So...I can't know where we're going until I agree to go?" Brian shifted how he sat to look at me. "You'll just take me to wherever without letting me make my own safety net?"

I sighed as I studied him, then looked away.

"Who do you trust more?" Kevin asked quietly. "The ones who drove seven hours after you left one message, or the ones who were torturing you for a week straight and threatening to do it for two years?"

"I know where I stand here," Brian pointed out. "I know the kinds of things I can do to get out."

"You also know they can just kill you," Kevin noted.

"And what you're proposing is any better?" he snapped, sliding off the car. "I stay here, and sure, I might die. I go with you...and what? Don't pretend like you're not just as much above the law as they are. I've heard stories of your people beheading people. No one ever hears about that. How do I know you're not taking me off to prostitution?"

We both blinked at him.

He sighed and looked away, crossing his arms over his chest. "And don't pretend that coming all this way should make me not worry at all. I'm obliged to you, right? At least I know Josh will act to protect me, and he very well might _kill_ Ethan tonight."

"Well, you'll have to decide for yourself," I sighed, looking to Kevin. "I suppose getting you out from Ethan's influence is enough of a goal."

"And you're a great hero," he snapped back at me. "Getting off on beating the shit out of people."

I flashed him a wicked grin. "Not people, just Ethan."

Kevin kicked at me.

Brian was obviously not sure how to take that, looking back to Kevin.

A car turned into the lot with loud music blaring, and we all turned to watch it.

"I still hate that it's his," Kevin noted dryly as the white thing moved up to us. The music was pounding hard as it slowed and parked. It took a long moment before the music ended.

Josh slid out of the car, looking between us with interest, and pointing at the machine with his thumb. "I have a crying twenty year-old in here," he noted. "I'm thinking we should go get our suite or something."

"And that sounds like...the thing to do?" I asked him dryly, looking to his car nervously. I felt bad for whoever that kid was.

"We're sort of on the clock," Josh noted, gesturing. "Follow me."

"That sounds promising," Brian noted dryly, turning back to the car.

I shrugged slightly at the young man, turning to get in as well.

"Don't worry," Kevin said in an undertone as he climbed into the back seat. "We can get the kid from him and go if we have to."

Brian nodded, looking relieved.

It didn't take long for us to reach a hotel. It wasn't as flashy as the strip ones, nor as large. The gambling floor was the same, though. Josh had said or done something so the male with him had quieted. He talked to the staff and fairly quickly arranged to have our bags taken up, which consisted of both Kevin and I having ours taken from us almost forcefully.

When we reached the room, our bags were laid out across the table behind the sofa, and we looked around skeptically.

"Alright," Josh noted, stretching as he looked around to us. "So the long and short of this is that I just declared war on Ethan. He was obviously expecting something, or else he wouldn't have let Brian answer his phone earlier. He might have actually let him leave a message with someone."

Brian looked away.

"So he's coming at us tonight," Josh added, looking back to Brian. "Can you deal with that?"

Brian shrugged. "At this point, I'm pretty much willing to do anything to keep away..." he hesitated, not looking at them.

"I hope so," Josh sighed tiredly. "Because Ethan is going to try to get both you and Joey."

"I can't wait for him to be close enough," I muttered, rubbing at my mouth briefly.

"You can't kill him," Josh noted. "Because my family will notice that. As it stands, the two of you are cat's paws, but..." he looked around to Kevin. "We need to figure something out."

"Like what?"

"Like Ethan needs to be beat down," Josh shrugged. "I should take Ryan and attend to him, and the three of you should stay here."

"Yeah, I'm not letting you run off with the destroyer," Kev pointed out, rolling his eyes. "I don't know how much influence you have on him, but even the bit change that happened this summer is too much."

"Why would I have influence on him?" Josh asked blankly. "And isn't the title a little pretentious?"

"Vampire, stop pretending you're not manipulative as hell," Kevin retorted, ignoring the question.

"I spent today eating crap and watching Illegitimate," Josh protested, staring at him. "Brian is mine, why would I sit there doing that if my cousin was off at his place?"

"I trust you about as far as I could throw you," Kevin retorted.

"Which is not at all," Brian flashed them a grin. "Because his reflexes would have him back on the ground in a heartbeat."

"Thank you," Kevin said happily.

Brian grinned back at him.

"I hate you all," Josh stated happily, looking around at them a moment. He gestured at the couch, looking between them. "Sit?"

"We're still debating if we're in on this," I offered. "Because we can totally take off with Brian and be fine."

"Oh, but just imagine what it'll feel like," Josh retorted, studying my eyes. "That moment when he realizes you're coming for him."

I hesitated, trying not to think of that.

Josh turned to look curiously to Kevin.

"I love it when people make my point for me," Kevin retorted.

Josh started laughing, gesturing the younger male to him with his fingers.

The poor boy started crying again.

"Sit here," Josh ordered, indicating the single chair. "Relax, Brian will mix us all drinks when he gets his panties out of a wad."

"You're joking, right?" Brian demanded, _focusing_ on him. "I'm pretty sure the human laws say something about _minors_ and _alcohol_."

"I'd hope you'd be more than _pretty_ sure," Josh retorted. "And what part of it means I give a rat's ass?"

Brian _snorted_ at him, moving around sit in the other single chair. We watched Joey sit and curl into the thing, and Josh threw the lap-blanket from the larger couch at him.

I blinked at Josh, startled. That seemed overly considerate, but it might be that I really was just keyed up.

"So here's the crux," Josh went on happily as he dropped onto the couch. "Which of you sits by me? The one supposedly under my influence or the one who has yet to be influenced."

I felt a ping of alarm, looking around to Kevin.

"You could stand," Kevin reminded me. " _I_ can stand. Actually _we_ can leave."

"Oh my god, you've got the biggest dick," Josh retorted, gesturing at the couch to him. "Your ego is appeased, come talk."

Kevin sniggered in spite of himself, glaring at the vampire.

I moved around to the bar, pulling out cups and pouring myself and Brian a drink. I took that and passed it to him, leaning against the back of his chair. It made him smirk and look around to Josh.

Josh considered us a long moment, then sighed and stood, walking over to the bar.

Kevin went and sat in Josh's spot.

"I can't tell if this is testosterone or healthy fear," Brian noted happily as he sipped at his cup.

"I'm not sure anymore, either," I agreed, moving to sit on the other arm of the couch.

Josh moved past us with a cup and passed it to Joey, kneeling down so they were eye to eye. "Drink this," he urged. "It's just some whiskey and coke; once we figure out what we're doing, you can go back to bed."

The young man was staring at him without moving.

"I think you should fuck with him," Brian noted, narrowing his eyes at the other young man. "Fucking addict him."

We all turned to look at him.

Brian glared at Joey without looking around to us.

"Why?" Josh asked blankly. "The point of this is to get Ethan somewhere we can ruin him," he indicated me with his thumb.

"Because he fucking _knew_ what Ethan was doing," Brian retorted as the kid's eyes filled with tears again. "He told him...to do the _thing_ ," Brian sat up to glare. "What was the thing? Lick my abdomen, wasn't it?"

Joey pressed his face into the corner.

"So, Josh, do the thing," Brian added, focusing on the white.

"I honestly am not _that_ interested in torture," Josh pointed out, frowning slightly at him. "Are you okay?"

"Not really," Brian retorted, leaning back again as he glared at the young man. "I just hate at the moment."

Josh nodded, frowning slightly. "How much of what was going on did he know?"

"I didn't!" Joey said, breaking into fresh tears before burying his face in the arm of the chair.

"You _did_ ," Brian snapped back. "Because you called him about an appointment and he _said_ he was with _the bartender_ ," he looked between us a moment. "And you started _giggling_ and asked if he'd _done the thing_ , and that he needed to."

The young man curled up more.

"I'm Hungry," Josh muttered as he studied Brian. "How fucked up is that?" he added, looking around to us. "I didn't feed before I left the house, because I've been being a slob the last two weeks and haven't expended hardly _any_ energy at all...and I know I can take from all three of them." He thought a moment, then smirked and looked to Kevin.

"Ry," Kevin's voice held a note of alarm in it.

I shifted between my friend and the vampire.

Josh looked between us a long moment, then stood and stretched again. "Joey, drink the cup."

Joey was shaking as he sat up to take the cup from the arm of the chair. He gasped as he swallowed it down, then shifted back.

"Shower," Josh ordered Brian, moving to yank Joey from the chair. "You two...figure out what we're doing, because no matter what it is, it includes Ryan beating the shit out of my cousin again."

"And if I disagree?" Kevin asked darkly.

Josh leaned toward him, and I felt the air going cold. "Then I show _you_ what it's like to be influenced."

I shoved at Josh's shoulder, being sure to avoid skin. His eyes were silvery and amused as he glanced back at me, and he turned to carry Joey into the master bedroom.

Brian stood, looking down at the sweatshirt he was swimming in. "I'm going to see if the asshat will buy me some sweats and boxers...or can you?" he looked between us. "Just mediums."

I nodded.

Brian disappeared into the second room.

"I'm worried that we're cooperating with the vampire at all," Kevin informed me quietly. "We came here for Brian; we have Brian, why are we still here?"

I looked away, trying to think of an actual reason for me to stay and attack the other vampire.

Kevin sighed as he studied me. "That bad, huh?"

I flexed my hand, remembering the pain in my knuckles. I shook my head at him, not meeting his eyes.

Kevin sighed. "Can you weigh this urge you have against what's really going on here, please? What use will beating the vampire down be?"

"I'm trying to think of it," I supplied, grinning briefly at him.

He considered me as music started from inside the room Brian had entered. We both turned to look at it, then exchanged a look. We moved away from the room a little nervously.

"You think it's bluetooth?" I asked quietly as we turned to pull the balcony door open.

"I have no idea," Kevin muttered as we leaned against the railing to look down at the pool. It was covered, and wind gusted at us chillingly.

"Can't be out here long," I noted quietly, frowning a bit. "I suppose...we don't really need to stay. I can't think of a reason to stay; I _want_ to take Ethan down, but..."

Kevin nodded, frowning a bit, and we both continued staring at the odd view.

"How do we get around the vampire?" I asked finally. "He's not going to be happy about it."

"He doesn't have that choice," Kevin pointed out, shifting to face me better.

"But he won't just stand back," Josh noted, moving to lean against the sliding glass door. "He won't just start a war and watch his allies disappear. Why did you call for my help, promise to repay me, and then decide to run off?"

I sighed, looking away. Given my own choice, I'd go along with him, and I had a feeling he knew it. I didn't know if it was because I was influenced, though.

Kevin looked between us, then sighed and turned back to the railing.

"You had L call me, didn't you?" Josh persisted, watching him.

"Fine," Kevin snapped.

"Uh," I muttered. "Brian wanted to know if you could get him some boxers and sweatpants."

Josh nodded, turning back to the door. "Size?"

"Medium."

Josh pulled his phone out, moving to lean against the bar. He talked for a few minutes, then smirked at me and tucked the phone away.

There was a knock on the door.

We all froze, turning to look at it in disbelief.

Josh moved quickly, pocketing the phone and pulled the door open.

"Hey!" L greeted him brightly, throwing her arms around him.

Josh swore, pulling away from her quickly.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, swatting at his shoulder. She looked past him, smiling brightly at me.

"Ella," I muttered, moving across the room to pull her into a hug.

"I thought that was crazily fast," Josh noted happily, moving to join us as Kevin reached us.

"What are you doing still up?" I demanded, relinquishing my hold. She didn't, but stopped squeezing. "Why are you here?"

"Because if Ethan is moving against us, I was entirely part of it already," she supplied, finally pulling back and moving to hug Kevin. "Where's Brian? The other?" she turned to look at Josh again.

"I knocked Joey out," Josh supplied, gesturing with his thumb toward the larger room. "I need to get my kit from my car, then I can tie him down."

We all stopped, turning to _look_ at him.

He smirked as he met all of our eyes. "Oh yeah, the incubus does sex stuff in spades," he winked at L, turning away. "I'll be back. If the kid wakes up just sit on him."

He disappeared.

"So what's going on?" L asked happily, moving over to the bar and starting to pull out glasses. "How have you been? I've been worried since you guys first called me that you got the call."

"So were we," I agreed. "The drive was damn long, but my car survived it...how about you? Your last letter hasn't come yet."

"Spoilers?" she asked happily as she poured clear liquid into each cup. "Nothing's really going on. I was writing you in school, though, and the girls asked me who wrote letters anymore."

I laughed at that, moving to take the first cup she'd poured as we chatted. Kevin moved to join us, looking amused. After a moment, he wandered over to the coffee table. I wasn't paying that much attention, but when he returned, he set a half full glass next to my hand.

L blinked at it, then up to him.

"He mixed a couple drinks before you got here," Kevin supplied.

"Oh, shit," I laughed, picking up the glass and taking a long drink to finish it.

"Don't get drunk when you have to deal with Josh," L complained, reaching over to take the rest of the thing from me. She took a long drink, then shuddered and stared at it.

"I have to deal with Josh," I offered happily, drinking more from the glass she'd mixed.

She laughed at that, moving to stand next to me at the bar. She pulled my staff out of my belt loop and started fiddling with it as she went into a recitation of a test she'd taken earlier in the day.

Kevin moved around us with the cup she'd poured him, moving to drop on the couch with a long-suffering sigh.

L turned to focus on him, half beaming as she bounced over to sit in the seat across from him, leaning forward as she stared at him.

"What?" he asked dryly.

She continued staring at him.

There was a tap on the door.

I moved across the room to open it, seeing a pretty smiling woman with...a pair of royal blue sweatpants and a pristinely white t-shirt.

"You requested these be sent up?" she asked happily, passing them into my hands, as well as a small bag. "Do you need anything else?"

"I think this will be fine, thank you," I reassured her, looking into the bag.

She smiled brightly at me, then turned and headed off down the hall again.

"What is it?" L asked curiously.

"Clothes for Brian," I supplied, moving into the room and hesitating since the music started to warble slightly. There was nothing for it, though, so I moved into the bathroom.

"What?" Brian demanded.

"Your clothes," I supplied, setting the stuff on the counter. "L is here, too."

"Alright," he muttered.

I moved back into the room as the music continued to warp slightly. It seemed to stabilize as I moved from the bedroom, and I smiled at L when she looked at me with interest.

"It didn't blow," Kevin noted, tilting his head as the music steadied.

"I know," I agreed. "I was trying to be quick and calm."

Kevin grinned as I dropped next to him.

"Have they brought the clothes yet?" Josh demanded as he moved back into the room. "They better have."

"Yeah, a minute ago," I agreed, giving him a curious look.

He shook his head, carrying a white backpack toward the master bedroom.

"Always the white," L called.

"Have sex with your wizard so I can touch you again," he retorted, starting to close the doors.

"Alright," she said happily.

Josh hesitated, then closed the door fully.

L started laughing, looking back to see us both giving her skeptical looks. She laughed more.

"I mean...if you need me to?" I asked.

L giggled and kicked at me.

"I mean," I gave Kevin a mock-concerned look. "I'm not gay, so..."

She laughed even harder, taking another drink of her cup.

I laughed more, shifting and trying to think of something else to say.

"Why did you let her walk off with your staff?" Kevin asked curiously, looking back to me. "She has your weapon, meaning you're defenseless..."

I blinked at him, then reached up and unzipped my bag. It only took me a moment to have my heavy rope out, and I flopped the one end at him. "Happy?"

"Is that kinky?" L asked blankly, looking at the thing.

"This is totally a weapon," I noted, shifting it into my hand properly so she could see it all.

"Is it?" she asked, leaning forward and setting her cup down. She reached for it, and Kevin interrupted her hand before she could take it.

"What?" she asked blankly.

"Staff," he returned.

She blinked at him, then passed him my staff.

I snickered, letting her take the rope as he passed the staff back to me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three  
*Josh**

Joey, as it turned out, had a good amount of knowledge about the torture Ethan had been doing. He'd admitted to that, and to suggesting the licking; he'd promised to tell me anything I needed to know to keep me from licking him again. My cousin had built up their relationship with a basis other than lust, though there was a certain amount of influence required to build the bond, which meant that my threats to take him to bed before had been terrible in an entirely different way than I'd meant them to be.

It was probably why Ethan hadn't been running around without Joey lately, since they normally seemed connected at the hip. Joey seemed to be one of those humans with extra energy, the sort of thing that made them come off as mentally unstable if left to their own.

It was weird to me when my family had the same care for kine as I did, and I didn't understand why Ethan had attached to a buck at all. Of course, I couldn't say anything, since I used Brian. I didn't _feed_ on Brian, though...yet. I was still Hungry, and L being around wasn't going to help that.

I ran my hand down the male's neck, leaning over to his ear. "Stay on this bed and don't make a fuss," I muttered. He shuddered slightly, and I took a moment to tie one wrist to the bedpost. He could break the string if he had to, but he wouldn't choose to. I ran my hand down his throat again, watching him shudder and taking some of his energy. Not much, the excess...enough to take the edge off.

What I _wanted_ to do was to take L to the other room and have some fun, but she'd informed me that it was better to be protected because we could run around for hours without me influencing her.

It was true, but I didn't think she really understood what that protection _meant_.

I sighed as I moved back into the main room, blinking since Brian was curled against Ryan's side. He was wearing the blue sweats I'd ordered, and the same painfully ridiculous sweater he'd worn from the car.

"I ordered you a shirt," I pointed out.

"And I decided not to wear it," Brian blinked around at me. "I have a wife-beater on."

"I ordered it because this is painful," I retorted, indicating the thing he had on.

"And this sweater was given to me to provide me comfort," he gave me a look. "And that's about what I want right now."

"Bullshit, you're doing it to annoy me," I retorted, moving nearer. I actually believed him, but if I could get him out of that stupid sweater...

He jumped away hard, scrambling onto and over Ryan's lap.

"What are you doing?" I demanded, looking up to Ryan.

Ryan was _watching_ me.

I wasn't sure what had happened, but Brian had curled into Ryan's far side, pressing his face into the wizard...who was holding a large and thick rope.

I smirked, meeting his eyes.

Ryan rubbed briefly at his mouth, then shifted like he'd stand.

"Don't," Brian hissed, clinging to him.

"Come here," Kevin muttered, reaching over and grabbing the smaller male under the arms. He pulled him across the couch to his side, then smirked at me.

I looked between the three of them, then looked back to L. She had her chin supported in one hand, and she tapped her index finger next to her eye.

...Oh.

I blinked at her, then looked back to see Ryan standing. He changed his grip on the rope, pulling a bit of it over into his far hand.

I took a moment to control myself, then shifted to look around the wizard. "Are you okay?" I muttered to Brian. "Like, seriously?"

"I realized that I was feeling the cold," Brian supplied, curling into the ridiculous sweater more. "I wanted to get away before you grabbed me."

"I won't grab you," I sighed, moving to sit carefully in the second chair as I looked back to Ryan.

"You can say it," Brian pointed out, "but then, so did _he_."

I made a face.

"Sorry," Brian sighed. "I know you're not like that, the whole thing just makes me anxious. What were you doing?"

"I fed a little," I shrugged. "I'm feeling more and more Hunger, and honestly, the only one here I haven't influenced is Kevin. I could feed from you or Ryan with ease if I were inclined to."

"But not the girl?" Kevin asked dryly.

"The girl is protected," I pointed out. "The last person she had sex with loved her."

"I hate it when you say it like that," L stated, frowning at me as Ryan sat down again.

"Well, no matter what I do or say, we're stuck in this stasis," I snapped back at her. "It doesn't matter; right now we have to get ready for Ethan, and letting the wizard attack me will do no one any good."

"I dunno, it'll make me feel better," Kevin noted.

"Ryan, can I please touch him?" I asked, focusing on the wizard.

"He hasn't annoyed me enough yet," Ryan returned, settling onto the couch with a smirk.

I snorted at that, watching as Brian moved to snuggle into his side again. I blinked at the young man, raising an eyebrow.

Brian looked down.

"Why _are_ you doing that?" Ryan asked curiously, looking down to him.

"Because you will protect me," Brian returned. "I've been pretty much left to my own since I turned eighteen. I couldn't model without the damn photographers suggesting I go to this or that gay shoot they had going on where I could make bank."

I flinched at that.

"I was recruited into Secrets by a damn model agency," he added, dropping his head against Ryan's shoulder. "They put me through the training courses, and then handed me a damn gag order to get hired. It was their way of letting us know that something wasn't above-board at that club. The first night I _got_ there, I was fed on. She was..." he shuddered slightly, not looking at us. "But she didn't care about me. We romped around back halls for about two weeks before she got bored with me and went to play with another new hire. I'd been exhausted, and one of the other bartenders told me about the damn white court and taught me how to deal with them...before he _vanished_. I had to tell the cops how he'd been at work on the one day and everyone liked him...and he's gone. I don't know if he's a thrall or dead, but he's gone."

Ryan wrapped an arm around him.

"Thrall," I offered, looking around at them all. "A cousin from out of town took a liking to him...you mean Beck, right?"

Brian sighed and nodded, pressing his hands to his face.

"So, since Ryan's not trying to fuck you or manipulate you in any way, he's comforting?" L asked quietly.

"I suppose," Brian muttered. "But it's more than that..."

"He controls?" she asked. "He controls Josh and Kevin, anyway. I've seen him doing both."

"Don't tell me that," Kevin complained. "When I start thinking about it, my ego declares war and the two of us go around and around until he embarrasses me."

Ryan flashed him a grin, then frowned and looked back to L. "When did I control either of them?"

"He's the first person in a long time who doesn't seem to want something from me," Brian added, looking around to L and noticing Kevin's offended expression. "And I should note that Kevin and Ryan are one entity, huh?"

Ryan started laughing at that, smacking at Brian and shifting so he didn't have his arm around the guy anymore.

"So...my sources tell me that my cousin is rallying his forces," I noted, glancing at my wrist like I had a watch on. "And it cycles us back to the conversation we've been trying to have. _What_ are we doing?"

"What _are_ you doing?" L agreed.

"I need to set something up so Ryan can have his way with Ethan," I noted, tilting my head at her. I leaned slightly toward her and whispered, "I like to watch."

Ryan _cackled_. "Put on a show for ya? Move it really slow and get him moaning?"

I laughed at that in spite of myself, waving my hand slightly. "Seriously, though."

"You're the white court son," Kevin pointed out, raising an eyebrow at me. "Don't your type pride themselves on your plans and manipulations? Aren't you already more involved in this than is respectable?"

I gave him a dark look, focusing away from them. "Maybe you missed it, but I've been laying on my couch watching television and feeling sorry for myself. I don't have any counter-plans laid out for what we're doing here. I got a concession from Ethan to keep you two and L out of the nonsense. I thought I'd specified that everyone should be left out, but I'm thinking back more and realizing that Brian wasn't technically mentioned."

Brian swallowed slightly. "He...he said that...it was my fault for getting involved with you."

"He needs to not come at us here," I noted, sobering and thinking about the matter. "If he can get up here, his bond with Joey will reassert itself and Joey will start fighting me again. My only recourse at that point will be to poach him."

"You say that like they have any idea what you're talking about," Brian noted dryly.

"It should make enough sense since they know me," Josh added dryly. "And stop derailing."

"Or what?" Brian demanded, his eyes going hard as he stared at me.

This was a crux point for him, I realized. He was testing me, and I had a feeling he was torn between leaving with the wizards or relying on me. If I didn't say the exact right thing in response to that demand, he'd leave.

I didn't want him to leave, which meant playing up to his ego a bit.

" _Stop_ derailing," I retorted, giving him as exasperated look as I could manage. "And go put the shirt on I bought for you because that sweater is _terrible_."

Amusement flashed through his eyes.

"What are you on about the sweater for?" Ryan asked blankly. "And come on, his work uniform was a pair of flimsy lounge pants, a bowtie, and a pair of shirt cuffs. Not exactly the thing to wear when the wind is blowing."

" _Stop derailing_ ," I complained.

L started laughing.

"Why do you care what happens with that guy?" Kevin asked, raising an eyebrow at me. "Why does it matter if you take him or not?"

"Because poaching is pathetic," Brian supplied. "They're pathetic if they can't get their own."

"And because I don't actually mean to _keep_ the terrified twenty year-old," I looked between them all in disbelief, then focused on Brian's skeptical expression. "I should lay my cards out now; I don't want you to leave the city. I want you here at the bar where I can find you and get you to run for me like I have been. I'm not going to try and make you stay, but you should know that I started all of this," I indicated the bedroom Joey was in with my thumb, "because it was _you_ he was fucking with."

Brian stared at me, then looked around to Ryan.

"You know," Kevin noted dryly, "I know this is incredibly pissy for me to point out, but it was _me_ who came for you. You called _me_ for help."

"He wants you to snuggle with him," Ry noted in an undertone.

Kevin smacked Ryan irritably.

Brian huffed, standing and moving away from us toward the bar. He was focused on it and obviously trying to ignore that we were all watching him.

"So how do we get the vampire where Ryan can fight him?" L muttered, looking around to the three of us. "And if Ry can't kill him, then what's the point of this? Issue begets issue here; Ethan is after you all because you all watched him get taken down...because _you_ orchestrated him getting taken down," she indicated me, "and you took him down," she indicated Ryan.

"Retribution and containment are a thing," I noted, tilting my head. "And honestly, if you people aren't going to be any more helpful than this, than I'm going into that room and feeding on him," I indicated the door with my thumb again. "Because it'll come down to the three of them running, and me taking what I can get here."

L gave me a sad look.

"Don't start that," I ordered her in an undertone as Kevin stood and moved to the bar with Brian.

"You say so many horrible things," L informed me in that same sad tone. "It's getting hard to overlook them."

"I'm not lying anymore," I snapped back. "Ethan has been growing his following and I gave the fuck up. He won't come against me personally again because I can take him down, but he'll come against them," I indicated Ryan.

Ryan, who'd leaned forward, rubbed at his mouth with both hands, obviously thinking.

"What?" I snapped at him.

"How do we get Ethan anywhere without giving away this base?"

"Given enough time he'll find it anyway," I pointed out.

Ryan turned to _look_ at me.

"Oh, you're trying?" I asked, startled. It made me feel dumb. I had to remember that Ryan hadn't been the one who'd wanted to run off. I couldn't really blame Kevin for wanting to, either, it was just hard to sit here knowing that Ethan was rallying his forces.

"Call him from a payphone, if you can find one," L suggested with a grin.

"A payphone?" I asked blankly. "Where in the world did you see a payphone?"

"I have one by my place," Ryan noted in amusement.

"Where do you live?" I demanded, keeping my tone dry. I could easily look them up if I wanted to put out the effort, but it was the sort of thing I wanted to get out of them by word games.

"You are hilarious," Ryan stated calmly as he studied my eyes.

"Just gotta look up houses by phone booths within seven hours of driving, right?" I retorted happily. "Gotta narrow it down to three."

He laughed at that, then looked around again. "Those phones hanging by registers," he suggested. "That's what they do in books and stuff, right? Go buy one and use it to call whoever, then throw it away. You have that phone still, huh?" he asked L.

"No, that's my main phone now," she smiled at him, which made me want to smack him. "Joshy gave me the money, so I got a good one."

He smiled at her.

"I hate you," I stated.

L burst into giggles, looking around to me.

I pursed my lips, though I was glad to have that smile directed at me. I hadn't meant to say that out loud, and by the smirk I got from the wizard, I had a feeling Ryan knew it.

"So you still get burned when you touch her?" he asked happily.

"Yes," I complained. "You need to go hop in the shower with her and see what happens—here, I'll lick you first."

L burst into naughty laughter.

"That is all layers of disgusting," Kevin noted as he moved back to sit on the couch.

"Lick _him_ ," Ryan ordered me dryly.

I gave Ryan a look, which made L laugh more as Brian moved to sit between the pair of wizards with his eyes downcast.

"I think L will be good enough to leave here," I muttered, studying the bartender a moment and looking back to Ryan. "You two are coming with me, right?" I asked. "I can get the calls going to get him after us and we can go set up our ambush."

"Where?" Ryan asked blankly.

"The desert," I suggested. "No cameras, no kine, no other witnesses..." I nodded to myself as I thought out a path to get out of the city. "Let's go," I headed for the exit and pointing at L. "Call me if anything happens, check on Joey every now and again but don't untie him. You stay put for now," I added to Brian. "I can't protect you if you leave."

"Or _if_ you leave," he pointed out as the three of them stood.

"You wanna come?" I demanded, looking back to him seriously. "You can come with us."

He looked away.

"Hey," I said, stopping as the wizards moved to their bags and started digging what looked to be weapons. "If anything happens, I _will_ come for you," I said quietly. "I'll get you away even if you don't want me to. At this point you're Ethan's prize, but I think of you as my friend."

He studied my eyes, looking down. "I wish I could believe you."

"What?" I asked, stung.

He moved forward, touching my face with his hand. I felt his aura and realized I was taking from him when he leaned into me. He made an almost unhappy noise, and I yanked his wrist from my skin in consternation.

"What did you all tell me?" he asked, still studying me. "You all made sure I understood that you'd be my friend..."

"Until your last orgasm kills you," I agreed, looking away from him. "I know...and I'm sorry."

He flexed his hand, looking away again.

"Are my eyes silver?" I asked quietly, looking around for a mirror.

"Yeah," he agreed. "I didn't realize how cold you were at first, this sweater...it helps."

"It looks atrocious," I noted skeptically. "I can buy you one that actually fits..."

"It's more than that," he retorted, studying my eyes seriously. "It's _more_ than just an ugly oversized sweater to me, alright?"

I sighed and looked around to Ryan, who was hanging the rope carefully around his waist. "You got anymore sweaters?"

Ryan guffawed at me.

"No, seriously," I protested, moving away from the bartender and looking toward the wizard's bag. "Something white, maybe a size smaller?"

Brian started laughing at that, moving back to the couch.

"How about I buy you one," I offered. "And then you can decide you don't like it for some reason, or even if you do like it, and give it to him," I indicated Brian with my thumb.

"You know, the more you complain about it, the longer I hope he wears it," Ryan smirked at me, then made a series of gestures before turning for the hall.

Kevin pointed at L, then the bedroom Joey was in with a wink to Brian...and followed.

I watched them leave the room, looking around to L skeptically.

"Go," she kicked at me. "I don't know military signs and I understood that."

"Understood _what?_ " I retorted. "They aren't military, either."

"He said go fast, go silent, leave no trace," she retorted, pointing imperiously at the door.

I huffed at her, turning to head into the hall. I stopped, in the door as I realized something, looking back to her. "My phone is probably going to die tonight. You have the card for the new burner, right?"

She thought a moment, then nodded.

"If my normal one doesn't go through, try that instead," I urged, heading into the hall. The wizards had vanished, and I stopped to listen as I realized it.

What the hell? I couldn't even smell them properly with the layers of scent from the old building.

The door immediately to my right opened and I jumped hard as Kevin stood there staring at me.

"Sorry!" I complained, moving to follow him.

"Honestly, Josh," Kevin muttered as he climbed over the railing. "You're the _least_ white-court-vampire vampire I've met."

I narrowed my eyes at him.

He dropped.

I swore lunging forward to see that Ryan was nearly to the ground, and both were jumping carefully from level to level.

Well, shit.

* * *

 ***Ryan**

I watched as Josh clambered over the railing above us and dropped.

"In!" I snapped to Kevin.

We both pressed forward, grabbing the stair railings tightly as Josh dropped behind us. It wasn't easy to find the stair cases that had the center shaft anymore, but Kev and I had always had fun dropping them.

Josh landed with a loud thud, looking up at us again. I dropped to the next level, moving carefully and dropping again. It wasn't the safest thing we'd ever done, but it was definitely faster than elevators or taking the stairs properly.

When I landed and stepped back for Kevin to land, Josh jumped slightly away from him, looking between us.

"What?" I asked, turning and heading for the entrance to the casino floor.

"You two scare me," he retorted easily. "First you fight me tooth and nail, then you dive into my half assed plan."

"No plan can account for every angle," Kevin shrugged as we moved from the hotel into the parking lot and the windswept cold night. "At best, we're all in the same place with the same goal."

"And that goal is?" Josh retorted, heading for our cars.

"Ry getting his," Kevin shrugged. "That's the long and short of this one, that's why we didn't just run off with the bartender as soon as we got him."

"But I got to see L," I noted happily.

"You know he called L specifically so you'd stay longer, right?" Kevin retorted.

"I assume as much," I agreed. "But that doesn't negate the fact that I got to see her."

Kevin snorted at me.

"You drive," I ordered Josh as we considered his Ferrari.

He snorted at me, doing the stupidest thing I'd seen before...and using his fob to unlock it.

The car's alarm started going off immediately, warbling.

Kevin started laughing, backing away quickly. I was laughing as well, watching as Josh messed with the useless fob. He finally crammed the key into the door, and I watched him fumbling clumsily with it.

"I _hate_ wizards," he snapped when he finally silenced the alarm.

"Let's take Bry and head home, then," Kevin suggested.

"Cool," I agreed, spinning like we'd return to the hotel.

"I am going to torture you," Josh stated, glaring at me specifically.

I laughed, leading Kevin back to the machine and letting him get in first before sliding into the passenger seat and giving Josh a curious look. It took the vampire a long moment to sit, and he avoided looking at us as he started the engine, listening to it intently.

I grinned at him. I had a feeling he really did hate us.

He was careful as he reversed, then pulled out onto the road. It took him until we'd merged onto a six-laned thing to pull his phone out. He hesitated, glancing at me, then indicated the road with his head. "Warn me if something goes weird."

"What?"

"I can't give you the phone," he supplied. "I want to text my cousin a video, but you can't touch it or it's done; that means someone needs eyes on the road."

"That is terrible logic and we're going to die in a fiery death trap," Kevin noted happily.

Josh didn't respond, focusing on his phone. It took him a moment to finish, and he focused on the road again as he set it between his legs. He took a moment to shift, then smirked at me as his phone started to ring.

"What was the video?" I asked skeptically. "That's not a good thing, right? And your phone is going to die fast this close to us."

"I told L that this phone was probably dying tonight," he reassured me. "I have a burner in the glove compartment. This is actually part of my plan, as soon as I answer that call, it's going to die; I need to get us headed toward the city outskirts before that. Don't say anything when I do," he added, glancing in the rearview at Kevin. "We don't want him understanding that we don't have his buck until he's out there with us."

"And this is foolproof?" I asked blankly.

Josh guffawed at that. "Empty night, no," he retorted. "This is a piece of swiss cheese. I could have thrown something cohesive together if you'd been on board with me when you first got here; if we had gone in, grabbed Brian and headed out. Since instead of cooperating, you fought me the entire time, I'm Hungry, _starving_ , tired, and frustrated."

"What happened to your over indulgences?" Kevin asked blankly. "Wasn't that your thing?"

"I'm not _talking_ to you about feeding, Wizard. Just suffice it to say that all of my plans are thrown together at the last minute and the only one that's _failed_ is the one that ended with Brian getting grabbed."

Kevin snorted.

Josh gave me a sidelong look as the phone started ringing again. "How have you been?"

I wanted to ask if he thought he was funny as the phone continued ringing. The sound was starting to change on the machine, though, getting tinny. "I'm not bad," I returned. "My class didn't get any refund demands."

"Mine only did because the girl thought I was hot," Kevin complained. "Don't be a dick."

I laughed.

"Huh?" Josh asked, glancing in the rearview at him.

"We teach karate," I supplied. "He does Saturday classes and I do Sundays. The only people who continue with Saturday classes are the young or the old. A hotsy-totsy bit of jailbait in his class was flirting with him for about four sessions before he told her he had a girlfriend in passing. She stopped showing up after that."

"Do you?" Josh asked, glancing back at Kevin.

"Does it matter?" he asked blankly.

Josh indicated me with his thumb.

Kevin rolled his eyes.

"He was all high and didn't go for L when they were alone at the hotel," Josh supplied. "I can only come up with one reason for that."

"It's so rare to find men who respect a woman these days," I retorted. "I'm surprised that was your first thought."

Josh laughed wickedly. "You were all over me and Ethan, though."

I laughed at that, smacking his arm.

"You're both stupid," Kevin noted, shifting how he sat. "Ry, stop thinking he's funny. What is the plan here, really?"

"The video was carefully planned to incense my cousin," Josh offered. "I dumped it onto a couple porn sites, too. I set up an email account on his phone a while back when he made the poor decision to leave the thing by me. It should already be getting comments."

"That's fucked up," I muttered, frowning at him. "I suppose Joey isn't in normal society, but..."

"I didn't show his face," he promised, making a reassuring gesture to me. He glanced at the phone as it started to ring again and smirked as he answered. "Hello?"

I could _hear_ the person on the other end shouting.

"Oh, was that too far?" Josh asked brightly. "I suppose sharing the video was the problem, huh? Oh no," he laughed. "I've been having a great night; what wizard? Oh!" he laughed again. "I forgot about him, he's fine. He's having a good night, too."

I gave the vampire a level look.

Josh laughed, almost more at me than his cousin. He started laughing harder when the shouting changed, and passed me the phone.

I frowned, taking it and blinking as the screen flickered...and died. The other person's last yell faded out weirdly before the entire phone vibrated and stilled.

"Oops," Josh noted happily, leaning forward and over to dig something out of the glove compartment. He hit the power button on the phone he'd grabbed, tucking it under his leg on the far side of me.

I studied the dead phone with interest, testing how it sat in my hand. We actually had a phone in our little apartment, an ancient rotary one that was more antique than anything. It was the way we received our missions from the council, and the handle was fat. This was a nice smaller size, and from what I'd seen of the screen, it had a crisp video.

"You can throw it out the window," he noted, then hesitated. "Well, no. I want to see if I can salvage the SD card."

I blinked, turning my head to look at him.

He snorted, changing lanes and picking up speed. "I know this area just outside of town that has a few rocks around. I can go park there and you two can take the sides."

"There are so many things wrong with this entire situation," Kevin noted dryly.

"Well, if I know what I'm doing," Josh noted dryly, "then my cousin is panicking because I've had his little buck for a couple hours, and I've spent the last two years carefully crafting the image of a monster. I told my cousin a few fun things to do with males because he had one, and he gave me non-responsive answers that I took to mean he wasn't cruel to the boy—come to find out, the kid is just a friend who does his secretarial work. I kept implanting ideas of what I might do to the guy if I had him, and he'd always try and shut me down. I only just found out why, and Brian was scared of me for a reason; I thought it was hilarious...now?"

"What...was the video?" I asked hesitantly.

"The same torture he did to Brian," Josh shrugged. "Some of it, anyway. Enough to make it look like I was about to do everything I'd said before; at least I think. I say a lot of shit."

"I had noticed that," I noted dryly. "You've said some of it to me."

"I mean it when I'm talking to you," he retorted.

"I _highly_ doubt that," I gave him a look. "So...what are we doing again?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four  
*L**

I considered the sleeping guy that Josh had tied to the bed with a string tied in a pretty bow, and wondered if my friend had lost his mind. It didn't seem to matter though, because the guy was sleeping.

I sighed, moving from the room with a yawn as I listened. Brian had gone to the bathroom, and it was going on three in the morning.

I'd hoped, when I'd seen Ryan again, that we'd all just talk for a while and go to bed. Unfortunately, Josh had done whatever he'd done and kidnapped some thrall.

"Hey," Brian muttered, leaning against the doorjamb and indicating the room behind him. "Should we both just crash on this bed?"

"You okay with that?" I asked, moving across the room to start flicking off the lights.

"I don't really want to be alone," Brian supplied. "I'm exhausted—and honestly, I took care of my issues in the shower."

"Your issues?" I yawned, toeing my shoes off near the door.

"Ethan did something. He was torturing me...and..." he hesitated. "I couldn't attend to anything."

I blinked tiredly at him, moving across the room to the bed as I considered that. It took me a moment to understand what he meant, and I dropped onto the mattress to stare at him.

He waved a hand at me. "Josh fixed it," he muttered, shifting to sit. "I _ache_ though."

"Why?" I asked blankly, trying not to imagine what he'd done in the shower or what might ache.

He smiled tiredly at me and shifted to pull off the huge sweater I'd gathered was Ryan's. He had a white wife beater on under it, and I blinked as he pulled the sweater off.

He had bruises on his chest and arms. The ones on the top of his shoulders were dark, and he ran a hand along the shirt as he met my eyes. Before I could think of anything to say, he pulled the wife-beater up.

There were bruises all _over_ his torso.

"Oh," I muttered, grabbing the shirt and pulling it away to see how far the bruising spread.

"There's more on my back," he added. "Ethan thought it was great; he went and got that tattoo makeup and told me that if anyone notice the bruises, he'd bring a buck and let him have me. He told me that if I told Josh what was happening, he'd break me...he was making me beg for everything he was doing, and..." he looked away as he pulled the shirt back down. "It doesn't matter. Josh fixed it."

"I'm sorry," I sighed as he tossed the sweater down the bed.

He shook his head. "It's over now. Do you trust them?"

"Them?" I asked as we both shifted to lay on the bed. I stared up at the light that we'd left on and sighed.

"Ryan and Kevin," Brian muttered, groaning slightly as he shifted to grab something off the table beside him. It was a remote, and he used it to turn the light off.

"How does that work? Ry came through here."

"I think it's okay as long as the tech isn't used," Brian yawned. "But seriously, do you trust them?"

"I do," I agreed, tilting my head at him. "Why?"

"They were talking about me going with them when they leave...I know that Josh wants me to stay around, but that means working at Secrets and dealing with the whites...and considering the week I just had," he rubbed at a thigh. "I'm not so sure I can do it."

"Well," I muttered thoughtfully. "They're renting a little apartment over some warehouse. I guess it's the old office. He and Josh have this pissing contest going on, though, so he doesn't want Josh to find out where he lives. The rooms are office-sized, but it's well built and they don't have heat issues. I guess the area they live in has a lot of help-wanted, though."

He shifted slightly.

"I don't know," I added after a moment. "Don't dismiss Josh yet. He has you do stuff for him all the time, right?"

"L, it's _his_ fault this happened at all," Brian sounded stressed. "He helps me all the time, but..."

I made a noise, though I understood what he meant. "I trust both of them," I noted quietly. "Ryan and Josh both, and Ryan relies on Kevin. If you need to get out of here, they will help."

He sighed quietly, shifting and making pained noises until he'd settled. He sighed hard, not commenting.

I rolled over as well, yawning as I also settled. Brian already seemed to be sleeping, and I yawned again.

I didn't know how long I'd slept. I looked around in confusion, not understanding what I was hearing. Someone was moving and I could feel coldness in the air...

Brian _shouted_.

I shoved myself up in confusion and blinked at Josh that split second it took me to realize that...it was Ethan.

He was licking Brian's throat, and he turned his head to smirk at me.

"Hey!" I shouted, kicking at him. He tried to grab my leg, then swore and grabbed the blanket. Before I could get any more of an idea what was happening, I hit the floor hard. My thigh throbbed, and I tried to start moving as Brian cried out again.

"Stop!" someone else was shouting in the background. "Ethan! Stop it!"

I saw the guy from the other room trying to pull at the vampire. Brian was crying and flailing around as he tried to climb away, and the vampire finally straightened and ran a hand through his own hair.

"I told you he didn't do anything else," Joey was insisting as he pulled more at the vampire. "Leave him alone!"

"No," Ethan said. "That's not what this is," he grabbed Brian's arm, pulling him off the bed as the bartender tried to grab at the railing.

"Hey!" I lunged at them again.

"You want to screw her?" Ethan asked Joey distantly. "My cousin deserves that at least."

"No," Joey said, not looking at me. "Leave him here," he tried to pull Brian away. "This isn't going to prove anything."

Ethan turned to _glare_ at Joey, and I realized that his eyes were red. He'd been crying at some point.

What was going on? I jumped at them, grabbing Brian. Brian, in turn, wrapped his arms around me as he continued crying. I grabbed Ethan's wrist so I could pull the bartender away, and I spun so I was between the pair of them.

What was going on? Where was Josh?

Ethan swore, yanking at me hard. My shirt was covering my shoulders, so he was trying to grab at them...and Brian yanked my damn shirt up.

I squawked, but evidently Ethan hadn't noticed the action. He swore hard as he let me go, and I realized that Joey was begging Ethan to stop.

I shoved Brian at the hotel room door and he ran for it. There were a handful of people standing around there, and Brian came up short.

"Whoever catches her can have the girl," Ethan shouted from the room. "Bring the male to me."

The group focused on me, and I noted most of the men smirk wickedly.

"Run!" I snapped, shoving Brian at the door.

We bolted down the hall, past the elevator bank.

Nothing good was going to come of this, but at this point, we needed to keep away from _them_ until Josh and Ryan got back.

* * *

 ***Josh**

When I got a video sent to my burner phone of Brian, I realized that I wanted to kill Ethan. It was infuriating to see Brian that helpless, and a little part of my mind was made even angrier to note that he didn't have that stupid sweater on. The video jerked hard, and I realized that _L_ had done something. It showed blankets for a moment before it showed L on the floor with a confused look.

Joey was yelling at Ethan.

I smirked at that, realizing that no matter what happened, Ethan and Joey were going to have a few problems. The video ended abruptly, and I turned to look at Ryan, who was standing not far away with _that_ look...the destroyer. He had his staff in hand, and was very _very_ still.

"What. was. that?" Kevin asked, moving up to Ry's side.

Holy shit they were going to _kill_ me.

"I underestimated my cousin's ability to think," I retorted, moving toward them and glaring at the phone. "Ethan found them at the suite; we have to go now."

"What did he _do?_ " Kevin demanded...as Ryan's hand moved very slightly. He was reaching for that damn rope.

"He was licking Brian," I said quickly. "L stopped him and Joey was yelling at him. We need to move."

I skittered back when Kevin grabbed his own staff, looking between the pair as I remembered Kevin saying something about putting him and the destroyer together. Something about _things_ happening.

"I can't help it now!" I shouted at them, realizing that no matter what they decided to do, I had to get back to town. I turned and moved back to my car, sliding in and hitting the button to call L.

"So, asshole," she returned in a partially breathless voice. "Your darling cousin just showed up licking Brian, threw me down, neither of us have shoes on, and now his goons are chasing me with orders to rape me if they catch me. If you're not outside, I'm going to be _furious_ with you."

Kevin slid into the car, and a moment later so did Ryan. I didn't even wait for them to close the doors properly before I took off. We fishtailed, but I didn't bother slowing down.

"Where are you?" she snapped.

"At the ambush point," I retorted as two vans slid up to the access point I'd used to leave the highway. "Oh look, more goons."

"What happened to your damn plan?" L snapped. "Bry, in here."

I heard a door open and close, realizing that they were running. It made my stomach clench, because I knew damn well that however Ethan had found out what was going on, he'd nearly gotten them both.

He probably thought it was a sure thing.

"I don't know what it would have been," I noted, frowning. "There could be a tracker on my car, I never thought to check. I've just been brought down by that fucker, so maybe it's time to do a little permanence."

"How far are you?" she snapped as another door closed on her end.

"Twenty minutes at least," I noted as the car got back onto the freeway. I was ignoring speed limits, but even at four thirty in the morning the roads weren't entirely clear. If we took too long we'd hit morning rush hour.

"Damn it, Josh," she said irritably. "I don't know if there's twenty minutes of running in this hotel; I don't dare tell the staff."

"No," I agreed. "I need to hang up and drive, I'm nearly doing a hundred."

"Shit," she hissed.

I ended the call, focusing back on the wheel as I accelerated.

"What is going on?" Kevin demanded.

I looked sidelong to see Ryan _staring_ at me. There was an intensity to his expression that made my knees go a little watery; he didn't seem to have any emotions at all, which meant that he didn't care if I got hurt.

"Uh," I focused back on the road. "Ethan found them, he got ahold of Brian for a minute, but L is protected...at least I assume that's why he didn't catch them. They're running around the hotel."

"What happened?" Ryan asked in a voice that could command rocks to move and expect it to happen.

"I don't know," I admitted. "It might be a tracker on my car; I paid for the room in cash or I'd suggest my cards, but...I'm not entirely sure. Hell, he might have put a tracker in Joey."

Ryan took a long slow breath.

"I'll figure it out after we get them back," I snapped at him, taking my exit. I had to slow down because of the turn, and there was a chance I'd be spotted by the cops...but then, I was an incubus, right? That's what the wizards called me, that's what L called me. I could do something and get around the cops, unless they used a helicopter, and then well, I'd deal with it when I had to.

That was my philosophy the last few months, right? Sure, be in love with your high school sweetheart, let her run around and do her own thing. Protect her by avoiding her so she can meet a damn wizard who happens to be more impressive than you, no problems.

I glared as I ran a red light. I had too much ground to cover, too much shit to make up for, and not _nearly_ enough time.

* * *

 ***Ryan**

If I hadn't been scared for L and Brian, I'd have taken Josh down. I wasn't sure if this situation was Ethan's fault, or Josh's. Ethan seemed to have thought everything out in advance, and what was Josh doing? Making it up as he went? He really was the least white-court vampire I'd ever heard of. Most of them had plans inside plans inside plans, where nothing ever went wrong. Josh didn't even have _one_ plan...or did he?

I frowned as I considered what could come of this, glancing around and wondering why there were no cops coming up on us. It had taken us a fair bit of driving to get out of town like that, but Josh was making up for it with speed now.

"What do we do?" Kevin asked me seriously, leaning forward.

"Hit him hard and run him off," I shrugged. "Either that or you go after L and Bry while I take him down."

"He's not alone," Josh pointed out.

"How much trouble do you honestly think I'd have with thralls?" I asked, blinking at him.

He didn't look at me long, shifting gears as he spun around a sharp corner. The car fishtailed hard, and we moved briefly into the oncoming lane.

I realized, a bit belatedly, that we were speeding to the point that a car crash would actually be deadly. Josh seemed in full control and comfortable with it, but...

I heard Kevin's seatbelt click.

"I'm going after L and Brian," Josh stated, looking to me sidelong. "I suggest you go up to the hotel room; Kevin, do whatever you want."

"And my only limit is not killing Ethan?" I asked.

"If you can help it," Josh agreed as I realized the tall building we were approaching was our hotel.

"Remember that there are humans all over," Kevin muttered to both of us. "I'm not talking about the thralls, either."

"I know," Josh said in a growling voice. "Do you suppose Joey will fight me?"

"I honestly can't care right now," I realized. "I want this done."

"I care," Kevin noted pointedly. "Don't hurt the kid, he's more than just Ethan."

Josh didn't respond as we crossed the parking lot. He'd barely stopped before I jumped out and headed for the entrance.

"Don't run!" Kevin snapped, running up and grabbing my arm.

I slowed as we entered the building, greeting the security guy distantly as we headed for the stairs we'd come down. No one stopped us, and the noise of the slot machines around us seemed loud.

One of them warbled.

I didn't have time to control myself, and we used the key to get into the stairwell. I had a feeling it wouldn't work again after this. We moved quickly to the first flight, then slowed to look at the center shaft.

"I don't know if we can make it all the way up," Kevin muttered, considering the distance between floors. "And how tired will we be if we do?"

"Well, let's not do them all," I suggested, then climbed the railing and jumped. We'd done endurance training of all sorts before joining the war, and since then we'd been doing battle with all sorts of nasty things; it had settled to the point that we weren't being called out of our jurisdiction as much. Being able to take a class at the dojo had been proof of that.

I jumped up again, climbing over the railing to jog up a few layers, then jumped back to the railing.

I nearly missed our floor, but waited near the door for Kevin.

"Do we sneak?" Kevin asked quietly.

"I won't," I returned. "You do. Come in and take care of any thralls."

He nodded.

I turned and started down the hall, slamming my staff against the wall at intervals.

Ethan needed to know I was coming for him. It was really that simple.

* * *

 ***L**

We'd reached a gym before the noises around us changed at all. It had taken a while for me to lose the goons. Brian, who had his hand in mine and looked dazed, turned his head toward the outer wall. He was looking around like he expected to see something.

"What?" I asked him.

"Something's coming," he supplied. "Something big."

I felt a nervous shudder as we moved down another hall. I could see glass doors ahead of us, and we both started for them. My feet were going to freeze, but I was at a loss; the best notion I could come up with was getting to my car. I had a magnetic case for a spare key in the bumper, and that was about what was left.

"What would be coming?" I asked. "Ethan?"

"I don't know," Brian shuddered slightly. "I can't think yet."

I made an unhappy noise. I hadn't realized anything was off with him at first, but as we'd gone on it had become clear. He looked almost drugged, and he was obeying me without thought. It made me nervous, because I didn't know what it meant.

The ground almost seemed to vibrate briefly, but I ducked out of the hotel.

Brian squeaked.

I looked around to him, then realized that off to the side...

A creature had landed in the parking lot to our immediate left. It was long, at least five hundred feet long, and thick. The head turned slowly to us, and it made me think of a male lion...just gigantic and in shades of red.

It was a dragon.

I screamed in spite of myself, forgetting that we were running from vampires. My knees, and Brian's, gave out when it stepped toward us. The ground vibrated beneath it, and I flinched down.

The ground shook again.

"You poor things," a male voice said.

We both looked up to see an Asian man. He was a bit stocky, but dressed impeccably. The dragon had vanished entirely.

"I'm sorry," he said, moving quickly toward us...and the ground vibrated with each step. "I didn't mean to frighten you," he leaned down to look between us, then focused on Brian. He tutted, reaching his hand over to cup his face.

Brian huffed out a breath, leaning into his hand a long moment, then jerked back.

"You're not influenced," the man noted, looking me over. "But you are mortal; hrm," his eyes were on my breasts. "A mating specimen."

I bristled at that.

He blinked at me, then smiled. "Excuse me, I misspoke."

"What do you want?" Brian demanded, trying to scramble away.

"There is a disturbance in my hotel," the male gestured to the building. "My manager called me to tell me that there were vampires making a fuss."

We stared at him.

"Don't give me that look, the boy was influenced by one," the dragon retorted, then turned toward the building. "With me, the pair of you."

"I don't think so," I started, but Brian grabbed my hand and yanked me after the creature. He gave me a wide-eyed and pointed look.

We followed the creature back into the building. There was something deeply intimidating in hearing those footsteps, and even stepping onto the carpet inside the hotel only muffled it slightly.

We were walking back _toward_ the men who were ordered to rape me.

I clung to Brian's hand as he moved up to my side. I didn't understand why we were following this creature, but Brian wasn't letting me go.

Two of the people who'd been chasing us appeared from a side hall, and the female leered at me as she jumped toward us.

I squawked as Brian shoved me backwards, trying to push her away at the same time.

The dragon turned to look, seeing me stumbling from them, then narrowed his eyes and moved forward. He yanked Brian aside, then stepped in and _caught_ the male around the throat.

"Can I eat him?" the man asked us...no, Brian. He was asking Brian.

"I don't know," Brian gasped back, avoiding his eyes.

The man sighed slightly in disappointment and tossed the man toward the hallway he'd been in. The female, who'd frozen, fell to her knees without looking around. The dragon huffed, then turned and started to walk again.

Well, that was terrifying.

I turned to follow him again as Brian caught my hand a second time.

It didn't take us long to reach an elevator, and the man swiped something on his keychain. The elevator played a weird little song that made him smile slightly, and we followed him in as he swiped the thing again. The machine started moving immediately, and Brian and I clung to the railing.

"I need to meet with my manager," he explained to us. "And I assume the pair of you know exactly what's going on. Correct?"

"Yes," Brian said, licking nervously at his lips.

"Are you two mated?" he asked, looking at our hands. "I understand this gesture to mean that."

"No," Brian didn't meet his eyes. "Mated pairs will do this to be connected and close. Otherwise, friends do it for comfort and reassurance."

"Is that common?"

"For some," Brian agreed. "I've been confused and uncertain for the last week, and this connection is reassuring me."

"And it's usually the females who need comfort," he looked impressed, looking me over before focusing on my hips.

I frowned at him.

"Excuse me," he looked away.

The elevator doors opened, and he gestured for me to lead the way. I turned to do so, looking around...and spotting another pair of males. They both smirked at me as Brian froze.

"Honestly," the dragon sighed, moving past us and across the hall toward the pair. They both fell to their knees at his approach.

"Leave my hotel," he stated. "Take any of your friends or comrades and leave. If I see any of you again, I will dispose of you."

The two men nodded, not looking up at him.

The dragon gestured for us to follow him, and I did so hesitantly. I could feel something like pressure around us as we went, and the entire building seemed to be shaking very slightly with every step.

It wasn't until we came around a corner and found Josh stretching that I realized we were near the hotel room he'd rented. There was a dazed female laying on the ground, and Josh turned to look at us...and froze. His attention went from me to Brian, and he turned to bow low to the dragon.

"My name is Gable Bui," the dragon noted as he studied Josh and the female on the ground. "Why do you do this here in the hall like a randy mutt?"

"I apologize," Josh muttered, not rising. "I am Joshua Rossi, and this woman was pursuing my friends," he indicated us.

The dragon looked from him back to us, studying us both carefully.

"He is my friend," I said quickly.

The dragon accepted that, looking back to Josh and the woman on the ground. She was sleeping, her hands curled slightly into fists.

"I meant no disrespect," Josh muttered, blinking a few times. "But I can see that my actions were offensive. Please allow me..."

Another man came down the hall, looking us all over before bowing formally to Gable. "Good morning, Sir. I do hope we didn't inconvenience you with our call."

"That remains to be seen," Gable returned calmly, gesturing at the girl. "Get someone to put her into a room until she wakes up," he muttered. "What is your report?"

"Earlier tonight a vampire checked into a suite here; he was respectful and quiet. He and his friends took to their room and made no hassle. Not long after, the vampire and two males left the group. A half hour or so later, another vampire arrived, demanded my staff give him the room number and a key to the room, and brought a handful of...these," he made a disgusted face as he indicated the female. "Up. He is currently fighting with one of the returning males in the suite, though there has yet to be property damage."

Josh focused on him, straightening slowly and looking back to me.

Gable sighed and started forward. Josh and the new man both melted from his path, and Brian kept ahold of me so we followed.

Kevin froze as we all entered the suite, turning to _stare_ at us. He shouted something in a different language, bowing immediately to Gable.

Ryan was sitting dazedly on Ethan, looking around until he saw me. I'd seen that focus before, and it was pure lust. He rose unsteadily as he watched me, then slowed as he actually noticed the dragon.

I was walking through a hotel with a dragon...who owned the hotel while two vampires and two wizards fought with goons.

What the _hell_ had happened to my life?

I rubbed at my forehead.

"Mr. Bui," Ryan muttered, trying to focus as he bowed a bit clumsily. "To what do I owe the honor?"

"Are you currently acting as a warden?" Gable asked.

"No, sir, I do apologize for...my state," he swayed slightly as he stood again, looking around until he found Kevin.

He was covered in blood. There was a trickle from his left eyebrow, and his shirt had been torn. There was plenty of the usual red, but also a substantial amount of it was pink.

"In what capacity do you do this thing?" Gable asked, eyes on Ethan.

Ethan had been beaten again, and he'd curled onto his side. He was crying almost silently...and Joey was rocking as he leaned against the doorjamb.

"Aw, don't want to help him now?" Josh demanded of the young man, his eyes hard. "What's wrong, Joey?"

Joey pressed his face into his knees, covering his head with his arms.

"I act as a friend," Ryan said, wiping at something on his face and seeming to realize the amount of blood there. He stared at the back of his hand, then looked up and around to me again.

I turned, moving to dig out one of the bar towels. I tossed it to him, and he pressed it to his face with both hands.

"What is going on?" Gable asked, looking around to study me.

"A few months ago," Brian said quietly, indicating Ethan. "He and another vampire decided to poach L from Joshua."

"L?" Gable looked back to me with a frown. "Your name is L?"

"Yes," Brian stated. "I do apologize for not introducing us earlier. I am Brian, this is L—the man there is Ryan, he's Kevin, and that one," he pointed to Joey, "is Joey. Forgive me for not knowing their surnames."

"Of course," the man looked back to me thoughtfully.

"L is a dear friend of Joshua," Brian added, then proceeded into a short and polite recital of the previous encounter Ryan'd had with Ethan. He summed up the information he knew carefully, then added that Ethan had approached him with a job the previous week.

"And why was this one focused on?" Gable indicated Brian.

"To my knowledge it was phrasing," I supplied. "Joshua said that Ethan needed to leave me and the wizards alone, that he needed to leave us all alone. Ethan may have understood what he meant by the order, but decided to only obey the letter of the agreement."

"He was only required to obey the letter of the agreement," Gable pointed out.

"It was a verbal agreement," Josh noted, moving forward to look down at his cousin with his hands on his hips. "He tortured Brian out of spite because Brian is my friend."

"So what happened here exactly?" Gable looked the room over, shifting so he could see the furniture.

"I used the wizards to exact retribution," Josh supplied, indicating his cousin. "The wizards and I left the city with the intent of drawing the fight away from collateral damages. I'm not sure what happened at that point. We were set up and waiting for Ethan; he is Ethan Rossi, and I got a video message of Ethan...doing things to Brian." Gable sighed.

"I need to feed," Ethan said in a pained voice. "Now."

"That sounds like a you problem," Gable noted, moving across the room. He kneeled down next to Joey and touched his face much like he had Brian. Joey pressed back into his hand, gasping slightly, then pulled away to look up at him in confusion.

"Mr. Bui," Joshua said quietly, "is there some way I can make this up to you? I apologize, I never meant for my problems to inconvenience your staff or other guests."

"If I have a need of your assistance, I'll contact you," Gable returned, standing and looking around to the rest of us. "I see no damages. Roger?"

The man who'd met us in the hall turned and moved past Joey into the main suite.

"Barring actual collateral," Gable noted, looking around to me with interest, "I will simply request you leave my hotel."

"Of course," Joshua said quickly.

"Miss L," he added, moving across the room to bow politely to me. "I find your looks and demeanor appealing. I am un-schooled in the mortal practices, but I believe at this juncture it is appropriate for me to invite you to do something simple that you enjoy. Would you like to do something like that with me?"

I _stared_ , shocked.

He looked to me with interest, then frowned and glanced to Brian.

"Coffee," Brian suggested.

"Yes, coffee!" Gable smiled at me. "Would you like to join me for some coffee?"

"Um," I hesitated, glancing to see Josh's eyes had narrowed. "I suppose, if you'd like; I'm not currently looking for a relationship."

"What does that mean?" he asked, blinking to Brian.

"She's not interested in pursuing the attraction," Brian glanced embarrassedly at me.

"Ah," the man frowned. "Can I change that?"

"I suggest you don't speak of it in front of her," Brian smiled briefly at me. "It might offend her."

Gable blinked a few times, then nodded his head and passed me a card. "When you are available, please call my..."

"Secretary?" I demanded, staring at the card.

Brian snatched the thing from me, passing it back to him quickly. "You have to do it."

"What?" Gable complained. "But I have numerous..."

"Just ask for her number," Brian retorted. "I'll talk you through it when we're not being stared at."

Gable huffed at that, then looked back to me. "Can I have your cell phone number?"

I considered him and Brian both as Joshua crossed his arms over his chest. I knew Josh wanted me to say no, but I had this feeling that the dragon was only being so considerate of us _because_ I was a damn mating specimen.

I wasn't sure if that was offensive of not, actually.

I turned to the bar and grabbed a napkin, then moved around them all to the notepad on one of the tables.

Josh huffed at me.

I ignored him, feeling bad, and wrote my number on the napkin. I turned and passed it to the dragon.

I wondered, as he took the napkin with a concerned expression, if I was actually in a coma. That could explain the vampires, wizards, and dragons...not why the vampire fed through sex instead of blood, though. Maybe my mind was just weird.

"...thank you," Gable muttered in a way that made me assume Brian was feeding him lines.

The hotel manager reappeared, ducking into the second room.

"Um," Josh muttered as he watched Joey rubbing at his face. "I know you're uninterested in our problems, but Ethan might kill someone if he's not fed."

Gable blinked at him.

"We need to get him out of here?" Josh asked.

"Do you?" Gable returned, looking around to Brian again.

"He's trying to politely ask if we can leave," Brian supplied.

"I need you to work for me," Gable informed him.

"Can you one-up that, Wizard?" Brian asked, turning to look at Ryan.

"Huh?" Ryan asked.

I snickered slightly. "He's high, Brian. He can't think straight right now."

Brian blinked, then looked back to the dragon.

Gable smiled slightly at him, more teeth showing than any human mouth should have had. "I can promise that you'll never be bothered by vampires again."

"Now, just a damn second," Josh snapped, moving nearer him. "First you try to date the woman I love, now you're trying to promise my friend he'll never have to see me again? I'm _still_ standing here."

That made the dragon turn and blink at him—which was damn creepy, since he had an inner eyelid.

Josh seethed, then turned away to the second room. He was there a moment, and when he reappeared he was holding Ryan's sweater. He threw it at Brian, not meeting eyes as he moved to start gathering up his bag.

Brian blinked at him, then down at the sweater. He slid it over his head, pressing it down around his hips and crossing his arms over his chest.

"It still looks ridiculous," Josh complained without looking around.

Brian smiled at him, then blinked at the card Gable was offering him.

"The only damages are within the usual range of linens," the manager noted as he moved back into the room. "Possibly a stain under than young man," he indicated Ethan.

"You may leave," the dragon noted seriously to Joshua. "Take your wizards, and that young man," he pointed at Joey.

Joshua froze, looking at him.

"You and yours have done no damages, and the disturbances you've caused are minimal," Gable noted. "That one, however," he indicated Ethan, "has done several things I disapprove of, not least of which is causing young Brian discomfort."

Brian blinked at him.

"That's why the wizard just beat him down," Joshua muttered. "I can't stand back and..."

"You don't have that choice," Gable said seriously. "If you don't leave, immediately, I'll attend to my attraction to your female."

I _froze_.

Josh did as well, then stormed over to grab his bag off the table.

"You will, of course, receive a partial refund on the suite rental," Gable noted, smiling almost wickedly at me as I moved quickly to join Joshua. Kevin grabbed his and Ryan's bags, and Brian moved quickly to grab Ryan's arm and lead him toward the door. He stopped, looking to Gable, then turned and grabbed Joey from the ground.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five  
*Ryan**

When attempting to roll over pressed my body against someone, I woke up enough to look around. I was in a hotel room, and Brian was snugged up against my side. I could see Kevin alone on a second bed, and wondered why the hell it wasn't Kevin laying with me. He didn't snuggle.

"Oh, hey," Brian whispered, pulling away and smiling tiredly at me. "Sorry."

"What's going on?" I asked blankly.

"Josh thinks he's funny and was trying to get L to have sex with you; Kevin had run to the store. L and I had to sort of manipulate you a bit because you were out of it."

"Sorry," I muttered, rubbing at my face and sitting up. I felt like shit. Every muscle in my body ached, and there were spots of throbbing pain on my face.

"No worries," Brian reassured me quietly. "You just smeared blood, though."

I grunted noncommittally at him, climbing out from under the blankets and looking down at my chest. I was covered in bruises, and for reasons I didn't want to fathom, I was only wearing my boxers.

I moved stiffly through the room to the bathroom, and took a moment to stare at my own reflection.

We didn't keep mirrors in our apartment because they could cause all sorts of issues. The one mirror Kevin and I used to shave with was kept wrapped in a silk bag in the bathroom drawer. It was also in a circle in that drawer.

My face was covered in bruises and had a number of small wounds. The one under my left eyebrow was scabbed over, and there was a smear of blood down my temple. I needed a shave, and probably a haircut. My chest was a world-map of bruises, and the scratches down my chest looked like fingernails.

I groaned quietly, turning so I could see my back—it was the map of Pangea, along with the sexy sort of fingernail scratches that were not at all caused by the kinky stuff. My thighs were even bruised, though the marks on shins were a mix of old and new.

I huffed, turning the water on for the shower. I didn't have any clear memory about what had happened after we left the hotel that Bui evidently owned. I'd gotten to beat Ethan down, and considering the tears on my knuckles, I'd managed to get another dose of vampire blood. I didn't remember being near L after that; mostly just laughing because Brian had opted to drive my car and he'd had to pull the seat far forward.

What had happened after that?

I dropped my boxers on the floor, then climbed into the hot water. I could ask them all what had happened when I didn't feel like every muscle in my body was paralyzed.

* * *

 ***Josh**

L was mad at me.

I glared at the bathroom door before looking down to Joey. Joey had spent the last few wee hours crying, and had finally passed out after the sun had risen. We'd left the dragon's hotel and headed to one of the nicer places off the strip. I'd wanted to have another night with L, and I knew she and the damn wizard were attracted to each other. The two things were not mutually exclusive, though her insistence that I'd be jealous of Ryan was ridiculous. I was jealous when she chose him over me, I did not lack for bed skills in the slightest.

Anyway, she'd realized what I'd been doing and gotten Brian in to help her distract Ryan, and then had ripped me a new one about it. She'd gone on and on about how the protection on her meant we could be with each other again...and then had broken into tears when I'd pointed out that the protection would be back on her when we got out of bed.

It hadn't gone well for either of us, and I was beyond tired.

I started pacing as she showered, wanting to hit something. She'd pointed out that, considering what her relationship with Ryan was, there was no guarantee that sleeping with him would mean I could sleep with her again. She'd also pointed out that sex wasn't just pleasure, not to her. No matter how I tried to push it off, she couldn't step outside her own morality so we could have sex again.

I should suck a damn cotton ball and throw it at her the next time Ryan was high like that.

The idea was gross, and the notion of how offended she'd be by it was amusing. I'd have to say it to her—maybe when Ryan got up.

The conversation had worked around to her giving the dragon her phone number, and how offended I was that she dismissed my affections. She'd practically broke down again, complaining about how the situation hadn't given her an out...and then she'd cried more about how the dragon had threatened to rape her, and how there'd been a group of people with Ethan who'd all been chasing her down as well.

I'd managed to comfort her for a while, but the moment she'd started to relax, my Hunger had flared. She'd stormed to the second bed at that point, and had lay there crying for a while.

Neither of us had slept very well, and I knew it'd be a while before anything between us was right again.

The water stopped, and I moved back to the bed. Joey opened his eyes slowly, then jerked away from me with a gasp. He fell out of the bed, and I moved quickly to help him.

"Sorry," he gasped, hesitant to accept my hand up. "I...I forgot."

"No worries," I reassured him, rubbing at my arms as I looked around. "Empty night, I'm sorry that all got that crazy."

"I find that hilarious," he retorted, sitting on the bed again.

"Don't be surly," I sighed, moving to sit and study him. "You alright?"

"Not really," he retorted, pulling his legs up to his chest and leaning against the headboard as he studied me.

"Yes, I told Ethan a thousand terrible things," I agreed, rolling my eyes. "No, none of them were meant to be taken seriously. I can honestly say that the most I've ever done with a male was what I did to you."

He blinked at that.

"So stop staring at me like I'm going to torture you; everything I did was to set up Ethan to get his ass kicked by Ryan again."

"So I can leave?"

"I'm going back to the manor in a while, I'll drop you off," I reassured him.

"But you let that...that _thing_ keep him?" he snapped.

"I didn't have a choice," I pointed out irritably. "I don't know if you realize it or not, but that was _a dragon_."

He looked down.

"Anyway," I sighed, "I don't know what will happen now, but you need to remind my cousin, the next time he gets some hair brained scheme, that I'm only returning you to him because this was a mild annoyance."

"And what makes you think he'll care?" Joey snapped, his eyes filling with tears. "He was calling me to him, and I'm not so sure he wasn't hurt enough to kill."

"Considering that he was still moving," I noted dryly, "I'm pretty sure it was fine. Besides, the amount of choice when you're in that condition is minimal. He couldn't fight his Hunger."

Joey rubbed the tears away.

"What's going on?" L asked tiredly as she moved from the bathroom, brushing her hair.

"Joey's worried about Ethan in more ways than one," I supplied. "I want to run him back to the manor. I'll drop him off and meet up with you and the wizards."

She moved to sit near me on the bed, and I sighed as I shifted to pull her to me. I held her a long time, not entirely sure I was able to keep her in my arms because the shirt she had on or because I was controlling myself.

"This isn't awkward at all," Joey noted darkly.

I sighed at him, knowing my moment had ended. I let the girl go, standing slowly and sighing a bit.

There was a knock on the door.

I moved over and opened it, giving Brian a look since he had the ridiculous sweater on again.

"Hey," he greeted me with a smirk, moving past me to look at L. "Ryan is just getting out of the shower. He was saying something about going to breakfast but someone has to get him some pain killers first. Kevin said something about his favorite drug," he indicated me with his thumb, "but Ryan said he'd reached the end of his binge."

L started giggling.

"Wow," Joey noted dryly.

Brian laughed, looking around to him. "You don't like it?" he protested. "I thought it was great. I may have neglected to mention to you lot that my wallet doesn't fit in my work clothes, so I have no ID, cards, or cash."

"So...you're asking me for money?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

"Don't be a dick, I'm saying I can't buy the pain killers."

"You're asking me for cash," I repeated, nodding slightly.

L smacked my shoulder, turning to grab her bag. "Come with me."

Brian nodded, stepping back and looking me over. "You alright?"

"About as much as can be expected," I shrugged at him, avoiding his eyes.

He grabbed my wrist, squeezing it slightly, then stepped back out of the way as L moved out the door.

I rubbed at the spot as they disappeared, then turned and gestured for Joey to follow me.

"I don't want to obey you," Joey noted with a thick swallow as he moved after me to the next room.

There was a metal bracket that had been flipped to keep the door open, so I pushed in and stepped aside so Joey could pass me.

"Hey," Ryan greeted us tiredly. "Where do we stand on painkillers?"

"If I licked you, you'd forget all about the pain for a while," I offered.

"Get out of my room," Ryan retorted.

I snickered, moving up and past him to see Kevin on one of the beds. "L and Brian ran down to get something. Joey's ready to be done with today, so I'm running him back to the manor."

"Don't just leave me there," Joey protested nervously, crossing his arms over his middle. He wasn't looking at any of us.

"What's wrong?" Ryan asked, blinking at him.

"Ethan was trying to call him over to feed last night," I supplied. "And considering that he was injured, it could have really hurt him. I tried explaining that when you're that torn up your internal defenses aren't up against the Hunger, but..."

I noticed that both wizards were looking at me with expressions that were nearly the same. I frowned slightly, looking back to Ryan again...and felt like I was falling when our eyes locked.

I stared around the dark room, smelling the orange juice and blood the same as before. The room was dark, the view out the little window was still blindingly white, and Ryan himself still stood in a puddle of blood with a sword in hand and a body far too muscular to be his physical form.

"I control; I destroy," Ryan stated with his eyes intently on me. He shifted the sword, and I realized that he had a pristinely white belt slung around his waist without being buckled. "I will protect you, or I will _**ruin**_ you; you decide."

I felt a quiver through my stomach as the screams of his enemies encircled us. I could hear Ethan's voice among the throng...and I noticed one more thing that had changed.

The little girl's crying had faded away. It had been the most prominent before.

I gasped, stumbling backwards from him. I flailed a moment until I caught the wall, then stood there trying to process what I'd seen.

Ryan sighed, looking around to Kevin.

"I haven't met your eyes yet," Kevin noted, frowning at him. "I'd honestly rather not do that _again_ ; what changed, vampire?"

"A belt," I supplied. "White belt hanging loose...and..."

"Don't actually say it, I don't want to know," Ryan retorted. He moved around to drop on the second bed. "I think we should stop spending time together."

"Screw L," I retorted. "Then go away."

He _focused_ on me.

I blinked back at him, then looked around to see that Kevin was giving me a similar look.

"Yeah, they take sex emotionally," Joey sighed to me, moving to drop into one of the chairs from the table. "And I don't believe I have to explain this, but the vampire means it."

Ryan narrowed his eyes at me.

"He can't touch her," Joey reminded them, tilting his head slightly. "Whoever screwed her last loved her—that wasn't him?" he indicated Ryan with interest.

"No," I returned, narrowing my eyes at him.

"I'm not convinced that he doesn't love her," Joey noted. "So your plan will get him laid and then what?"

"Stop talking," I retorted.

He looked away.

"Don't just obey him," Ryan sighed.

"Do you have _any_ idea what that means?" Joey snapped, swallowing hard. "He's already..." he swallowed again.

"What?" I asked, looking around to Ryan. "What color are my eyes?"

"Dark," Ryan considered me.

I looked to Joey blankly.

He stared up at me a moment, then looked away again. "You are not safe."

" _Thank_ you!" Kevin said, throwing an arm in the air. "Why is it that only the thrall gets it?"

"Ryan?" I demanded, looking back to the wizard.

"I'm too sore to care right now," Ryan waved a hand.

I focused on Kevin, amused. I knew if I actually made a move for the wizard, Ryan's tune would change, but the expression of disbelief in Kevin's eyes made the moment _worth_ it for me...and probably for Ryan, too.

* * *

 ***Ryan**

While Josh ran Joey back to the manor, which I wanted to see if he could call it a manor with a straight face, the rest of us wandered down to the tail end of the continental breakfast. We'd been there eating when he'd gotten back, and had proceeded to lounge around drinking coffee.

Brian's phone buzzed, making us all jump and look at him. His expression went confused as he looked at it, then pulled it closer to consider it.

"What?" L asked curiously. "And should you have that even this close to the tech gremlins?" she indicated Kevin.

"Tech gremlins?" Kevin retorted, though he sounded amused. "Honestly."

L smiled.

"I just got an email from...Gable's secretary," Brian supplied, looking around to me briefly. He read it, then stared. After a moment, he lowered it to _look_ at me.

"Hm?" I asked quietly. Part of the reason for our lingering was because he was waffling. He didn't really want to give up his job and apartment to come live with us in a situation he couldn't judge first. I didn't blame him for that, and the longer we stayed in the city, the more time I got to spend with L.

"It's a job offer."

I tilted my head at him with interest.

"A fucking...salary," he stared at it, looking up to us in shock, then read back down it and rubbed at his face.

"What?" L asked quietly.

"Gable...offered me the job of a personal assistant," Brian said quietly. "Forty-hour work week, and anything beyond that overtime."

"Personal assistant to a dragon?" Kevin asked, blinking at him. "Is it bad that I see you butchering chickens?"

Brian _stopped_ , giving Kevin a look.

Kevin snickered.

"How did they get my email?" Brian muttered, frowning.

"I have your email," Josh offered. "It's not that hard to get if you know the right sort of people."

"It's your cell number," L reassured him. "Your email and cell are probably connected."

"How did he get my cell number?" Brian retorted.

"He _owns_ a casino in Las Vegas," I retorted, remembering a magazine article. "They have all sorts of facial recognition at the very least."

"That's a valid job offer?" Josh asked, reaching for the phone. He read the email, then shook his head. "I'm deleting it."

"Hey!" Brian protested swiping for the phone.

Josh passed it back to him, pouting.

"Don't give me that," the bartender complained. "I thought you wanted me to stay in the city so you can use me."

"He said you wouldn't have to deal with me anymore," Josh retorted.

Brian considered him a long time, then looked away.

"Didn't you call him your friend?" L demanded. "If he's a friend, then the term 'dealing with'," she made air quotes, "takes on different connotations."

"Go have sex with your wizard," Kevin retorted.

I started laughing hard.

L looked between us with a beautifully disdainful expression, then turned to Josh. "Lick them."

Brian started cackling.

"...I hate you all," Josh noted.

L started giggling, leaning over into him without touching skin.

I licked my lips, rubbing at my mouth as I met her eyes. "If you really need it..."

She gave me a wide eyed innocent look. "But, Sweetie, don't you love me?"

"With all my...heart," I agreed, glancing with only my eyes to Brian.

Brian snorted. "My heart's in the right place, then."

We all started laughing again.

Josh leaned back into L, sighing slightly, then leaned down to whisper in her ear. It made her giggle and swat at him.

It was incredibly pleasant to sit there chatting and being stupid. It'd been similar enough the first time we'd met up. It was unfortunate that we'd have to head out soon; and I had a feeling that Brian wasn't coming with us.

* * *

 ***Brian**

When a beautiful Asian woman showed up on my doorstep, I wondered if someone had pranked me. Ordering someone a prostitute wasn't out of the league of the bartenders. I'd missed a night of work after supposedly attending a BDSM party. It only stood to logic that someone would get me back.

"Mr. Nelson," she said with a sharp Chinese accent. "My name is Han Sailou, I am a master of Reiki."

I blinked at her.

"I was sent by Gong Bui to attend to the bruising you received at the hands of the vampire Ethan Rossi."

I stared at her.

"May I come in, please?"

I stepped back, allowing her to enter. She looked around for a moment, then moved over to my little dining room table. "Sit here, please," she said seriously.

"Um," I muttered. "I don't understand."

"I intend to heal your bruises," she explained, looking my apartment over with interest. "I'd appreciate tea, if you had any."

"I might have some of those green tea packs," I muttered, moving around into the kitchen and digging out a coffee mug. I filled it, setting it in the microwave.

"Take off the shirt and come sit," she insisted.

I moved to do as ordered, wondering if this was an elaborate prank. The problem with the notion was that no one would use Gable Bui's name for that sort of thing. Adding Ethan's name to the mix meant that this was real...and it correlated with the email I'd gotten earlier in the day from the same secretary that had asked me how I was doing and if I needed anything.

The thing that won me over in the end, aside from the fact that it was a salary with benefits, was that a man appeared near my station that night at the club. He told me not to mind him, Gable Bui had sent him...and when one of the vampires approached me, he'd moved carefully nearer us. It was a female, one of the ones that usually came during the summer.

As soon as she'd tried to throw a whamie at me, the man stepped forward and touched her face gently as he asked her to leave.

He'd left a burn down her throat.

An hour or two later, when my shift was ending, one of the males approached. He told me that everyone had heard that Ethan had primed me, and that Josh was with some woman so obviously didn't really care.

The man had moved up to him, offering a hand in an almost flirting manner...and after he'd grabbed the stupid vampire's hand, he ran his other hand along the guy's entire chest as he whispered something in his ear.

The vampire had run as soon as he'd been able.

"Hey, Amanda?" I muttered to my supervisor as I moved to change from the uniform.

"Yes?" she asked happily, unhooking the cuffs for me.

"I'm sorry, but I need to give you my two weeks' notice."

She stopped, staring at me. " _What?_ "

"I've been thinking about it today," I explained. "I was offered a job as a personal assistant. I've appreciated my job here, but..."

"You can't come back," she informed me, throwing the cuff she'd been holding onto the ground. "You leave us, you're done."

"Then be happy I'm giving you a two weeks' notice instead of walking."

"That man," she noted, pointing toward the door. "He can't come back. I received a complaint from..."

I raised a hand to interrupt her, studying her eyes. "I was offered a job as the personal assistant to Gable Bui. You don't want that man here, you tell him to leave."

She stared at me.

"I don't know if you missed the gossip chain," I pointed out, crossing my arms over my bare chest. "But I spent last week being tortured by Ethan Rossi. I'm beyond uninterested in what anyone from the white court wants if it goes beyond the drink they're ordering."

She continued staring at me.

I watched her a moment with a sigh, turning back to my locker. I pulled Ryan's sweater on as she watched me, then dropped the stupid pants. It only took me a moment to have my boxers back on and jeans, and I turned to sit to put my shoes and socks on.

"You're fired," she stated.

I froze, looking up to her. "Excuse me?"

"Don't come back," she snapped, focusing on her phone screen.

"I..." I hesitated. "Amanda, wait..."

"I just got the email," she snapped, turning to show me her phone face. "Gable Bui sent us a message that you're one of his; we don't want to deal with turncoats."

"Turncoats?" I asked dryly as I stood, looking her over. "You know," I muttered, "I'm honestly uninterested. Walk away."

She stormed nearer me, leaning forward. "You are a worthless slut," she whispered.

I backhanded her. I'd wanted do it since my first month of working in the club, and since I no longer had to maintain my job, I no longer had to deal with her belittling me. I hadn't told Josh before, but Ethan had been talking to her before this had started. He'd also appeared a few times during that week to talk to her.

I didn't think beating women was even remotely okay, but she wasn't a woman, she was a domineering monster who got off on terrorizing the young men she hired.

She gasped, stumbling back from me.

"Go fuck yourself," I told her, leaning over to gather the cuff from the floor.

"Hey," Lee muttered, moving nearer me with a frown. "Brian..."

"I gave her my two weeks' notice," I retorted. "She fired me for it."

He stared at me.

I shook my head at him, turning to start cramming my stuff from the locker into my bag.

Leaving Secrets was terrifying and exciting at the same time. I'd made decent money and sometimes my tips were psychotically excellent, but there was always that fear there. I'd always heard that pornstars had shelf lives, and that's what it had felt like in that club. There were no old bartenders. The ones who'd been there the longest had been there about five years.

Arranging to take the dragon's job left me anxious, but the secretary reassured me that my work wasn't going to be secretarial, but explanatory. Evidently, I was going to be the mortal translator for the creature, and would do things for him...which probably included butchering chickens.

I'd have to tell L.

The first few days of my new job had nothing to do with the dragon, it was the staff teaching me the dos and don'ts of working in the household. The man also took me clothes shopping and bought me a few suits and about a million pairs of slacks.

In the past, I'd heard that the dragon was formal, formidable, and unpredictable. There'd been a few stories about him eating people who offended him, and after the three days of learning how to mix his coffee, actually meeting _up_ with him left me shaking.

"Ah, Brian," he greeted me with that overly wide smile, moving to offer his hand. "I was most pleased when I learned you'd accepted the position."

"Thank you for the opportunity," I said quickly, looking around.

"I understand that young men such as yourself enjoy their weekends for partying," he noted, indicating his sofa. "And while I do get invited to many private affairs, I'd be willing to give you the weekends off as long as you're available by phone."

I stared at him, then smiled brightly. "That would be acceptable."

He smiled back at me, gesturing to the couch again.

"Excuse me," I muttered, sitting and looking the office over. "You have a lovely home."

"Thank you. Do you have contact with Miss L?"

I blinked at him again, then considered it. "I don't actually have her phone number, but I imagine I can get it from Josh."

"Good, that napkin she wrote on disappeared. I was quite frustrated. Have they set up your email account yet?"

"Yes," I agreed, fingering my phone.

"Wonderful," he sat as well, pulling up his own phone. "Occasionally I'll have jobs for you that don't fall under the purview of personal assistant; on these occasions I'll send you emails that explain in detail what I'm requesting. It will also list your remuneration. I've sent you an email now."

I nodded, clicking the link when my phone buzzed. There was a block of text with a line at the bottom that said 'remuneration', I'd have to look the word up...

That couldn't be right, too many ze...

I actually read what the request was, lowering my phone to stare at him.

"You can refuse these requests," the dragon noted easily. "I know enough of the human moral system to understand that some of my requests will fall outside what you can bring yourself to accept. Please be clear with me on your logic; I find mortals confusing creatures, and many of them annoy me."

"Please don't eat me," I said seriously, pursing my lips. "If I annoy you, send me away."

"I'll try," he reassured me.

I sort of felt sick...because I knew that he meant that.

I looked back to his request, feeling my stomach somersault.

"Please bring my coffee," he noted easily, smiling at me again. "And as we will be working closely together now, you may call me Gable."

"Thank you, Gable," I said seriously, heading for the hall. "I'll be a moment."

* * *

 ***L**

I yawned as I looked through the peephole of my apartment door, blinking at Brian. He was in jeans and Ryan's sweater. I opened it to smile at him, titling my head.

"L," he said quickly, looking nervous. "Can...do you have time?"

"Sure," I agreed, stepping back to let him in.

"Thanks," he muttered, looking the living room over a moment. "I'm sorry to bother you."

I tilted my head at him. "So you're not here to seduce me?"

He smiled at that, his eyes lighting up briefly before he went back to nervously fisting his hands. "I needed to ask you something."

"So you _are_ here to seduce me?" I asked, looking him over again and indicating the sweater. "This isn't the outfit to do it in."

"It still smells like him," Brian protested happily, plucking at the thing before showing me the rolled up sleeves. "And you have no idea how comforting this actually is. I'm pretty sure it's my security blanket."

"Because it smells like him?" I teased, moving over to open the fridge. "I have drinks."

"Not yet," he said quickly, fidgeting a bit. "I took the job from Gable...from the dragon," he noted.

"Ooh, has that started? Did you quit?"

"I actually gave my two weeks' notice and my supervisor got pissed and fired me," he shrugged. "So I got ahold of the secretary and arranged it. I've been working there all week. It's sort of nice, I only started with Gable today, though."

"That's...odd," I decided, passing him a can. "Well, sit down."

He took it and sat, starting to rock slightly as he avoided my eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked, sobering and moving to sit on the couch next to him.

"I'm almost positive that you're going to be furious at me."

"That's promising," I retorted.

He pulled his phone out, clicking through some screens before glancing at me again. "You know he's attracted to you?"

"Something about a breeding specimen," I agreed dryly.

He made a nervous noise that was probably supposed to be a laugh. "Well, he's emailed me to...he wants...I'm supposed to see if..."

I frowned, realizing that if he was this nervous about it, I didn't want to tease him.

"He wants to date you," Brian blurted.

I blinked at that.

He glanced sidelong at me a moment, setting the unopened can on the coffee table. He tried to say something else, stuttering even worse. I couldn't understand what he was getting at, and he was only talking faster. I heard the words 'prostitute', 'sex', and 'babies' in quick succession, sitting up straighter.

He was probably right about the furious thing.

Brian closed his eyes tightly, not looking at me as he took a long breath.

"Take a moment and think about what you're saying to me, Brian," I said quietly. "Because I'm pretty sure you're about to get your ass kicked."

"Gable wants to breed," he said slowly. "And he's attracted to you."

"And how does that involve you?" I asked pointedly.

He swallowed, then hesitated. Finally, he passed me his cell phone.

I considered the email address at the top of the screen, then the message itself.

 _Regarding the person of L, whom you have called a friend, I would like you to put some effort into convincing her of my genuine interest. She is an attractive and poised young lady who seems to be of good stock. Her physical traits imply that maternity will suit her well. I am looking for a mate, and while I can pursue romance if it is required, I'd just as soon avoid the confusing hassle. If you are successful in bringing Miss L around to my simple request, I will reward you._

I stared at that in absolute shock, then looked down to the final line of the email.

"I...swear...I will split it with you," Brian noted quietly.

I blinked slowly at him, then at the line marked 'remuneration'. "That is a _lot_ of zeros."


End file.
